Aristoscientists, academic proletariat and reassembling the mega-machine: 21st century survival strategies of the estonian academia

Abstract

Transition from state socialism to post-communist capitalism has created many tensions in Eastern European societies. This article looks at the stratification of the Estonian academic community since the early 1990s, arguing that only a limited part of the academic community has been able to carry its relatively secure position through the 'transition', whereas most of those who remain in academia have been subjected to proletarianization. After describing recent structural reforms in Estonian higher education and research sectors, the article discusses the strategy of the Estonian science 'aristocracy' - natural scientists and engineers - to construct a new discourse which, instead of serving the needs of the Soviet war machine, relates to the 'mega-machine' of the global capitalist economy. The latter is symbolized by the Finnish mobile telephone company Nokia, which, following a recent request by the former President of Estonia, should be replicated in Estonia to catch up first with Finland and then with other 'knowledge societies' Here the competence of the scientific elite falls short, and instead of 'knowledge production', it resorts to a political battle for guaranteed public funding.