The Institution of Science as a Space of Multi-level Interactions

Book Review: Oleynik A.N. (2019) Scientific Transactions in Science: Networks and Hierarchies in Social Sciences, Moscow: Infra-M (in Russian)

Abstract

Citation: Chernysh M. (2020) The Institution of Science as a Space of Multi-level Interactions. Mir Rossii, vol. 29, no 4, pp. 204–216 (in Russian). DOI: 10.17323/1811-038X-2020-29-4-204-216

This article takes Oleynik’s monograph as a starting point for reflection on the state of Russian science, the results and prospects of its ongoing reforms, and the principles upon which the evaluation of scientific performance might be based. Treating science as a social institution allows us to determine not only the direction and the register of scientific transactions, but also to assess the amount of damage that can be done to science with inept reform policies that disrupt the logic of science’s internal communications. The reforms set out to force Russian science to become part of the world scientific process, but in reality, they distanced it from the standards of evaluation of scientific performance adopted in developed countries. They replaced the reproduction of the institution on the horizontal register by the “publish or perish” principle. The reforms, and primarily the reforms of the Academy of Sciences, became one of the primary causes of the degradation of the production of scientific knowledge in Russia.