Russian Academic Community Research Articles

Беседа врио первого зам. директора Института философии РАН, руководителя мегатемы «Российский проект цивилизационного развития», академика РАН А.В. Смирнова с главным редактором журнала «Проблемы цивилизационного развития», доктором философских наук В.Н. Шевченко

The current conversation of the head of the megatheme “Russian civilizational development project” academician Andrey V. Smirnov and the editor-in-chief of the magazine “Civilization Studies Review” Vladimir N. Shevchenko discovers the results of the five-year work of the research group of the Russian Academy of Sciences Institute of Philosophy, and gives a general assessment of the significance of the results obtained for a wide range of academic researchers – philosophers, political and cultural scientists, historians, and for the entire Russian academic community. In particular, important issues of clarifying the initially formulated goals and objectives of the project are raised. The general standards of publications in the journal, created to highlight the scientific results of research on the megatheme, as well as further prospects are discussed. The discussion also covers such problems as compatibility of various methodological approaches used by the authors of published materials, scrutinizes the relations of cultural, political and legal aspects. Significant attention is paid to theoretical views upon the interaction of civilizations in modern conditions, as well as the unique logic of the development of Russian civilization, the connection between “high” and traditional culture in the search for the most adequate expression of the essence of the civilizational project and its practical implementation.

Foundations of the russian statehood: textbook / ed. by A. V. Mal’ko. Moscow: KNORUS, 2024. – 264 pp.

This is a review of the textbook “Foundations of the Russian Statehood”, written by a team of brilliant professionals under the guidance of Doctor of Law, Professor, Honored Scientist of the Russian Federation A. V. Mal’ko. The review states that the publication of this textbook, designed for various bachelor’s degree programs, is a significant event for Russian academic and student community for a number of reasons. Firstly, the textbook under review complies with the instruction made by the President of the Russian Federation V. V. Putin to the effect that the discipline in question should be integrated with all educational programs of higher education. In addition, the textbook at issue meets the demands of Russian society for special emphasis on the Russian statehood in the course of education, irrespective of a future profession chosen by a student. Secondly, this textbook contains a complete and perfect characterization of Russia as a great state-civilization, presenting the most interesting pages of its history, fundamental achievements and discoveries focusing on the key notions and values that constitute the heritage of Russian society. It is emphasized that the textbook conveys a required scope of information to the students making them aware of traditional Russian spiritual and moral values, and feel integrated with the great Russian history and culture, its past, present and future.

Legal status of young scientists in the Russian Federation

The subject. The article presents a comprehensive analysis of the legal status of young scientists in the Russian Federation, taking into account the needs of the Russian scientific society for the reproduction of the scientific knowledge.The purpose of the research is to confirm or to reject the hypothesis of the necessity of the specific legal status of the young scientists in Russian academic law.Methodology. The formal legal method, the method of comparative legal analysis and method of systemic approach were used in the article.The main results. The research proves that the modern Russian academic community is in need of the young scientists due to the aging of the community. According to statistics, the lack of social guarantees and the low prestige of the academic profession result in a low percentage of PhD graduates in the recent years. The study concludes that there is no systematic approach to the definition of the status of a young scientist in the current Russian law. Although attempts to formalize the legal status of the young scientists have been made, they have so far not led to significant results. The authors conclude that the current legislation governing the legal status of young scientists should be harmonised. Analysis of the current legislation on the legal status of young scientists also reveals a number of complex issues. Social guarantees for young scientists, presented in the form of social housing, affect only a small proportion of the scientific community, while there are no laws granting preferential loans for young scientific workers. The participation of young scientists in grant support competitions is complicated due to the lack of a unified approach. Specific problems are faced by female scientists. A partial solution to the problem of the low prestige of the profession for both scientific and pedagogic workers, according to the authors of the article, lies in the foundation of a unified federal system of guarantied wages for such workers.Conclusions. Researchers conclude that a consistent approach to the legal status of young scientists and social guarantees, according to such status, can ensure the stable growth of young people in the sphere of scientific activity. In order to enhance the prestige of the profession of scientist among young people and to prevent the lack of scientific and pedagogical workers, researchers consider it necessary to take a number of measures, such as legal enshrinement of the status of a young scientists, development of a system of social guarantees, search for a new ways to measure the scientific activity of employees, formation of a stable system of postgraduate studies and creation of comfortable working conditions for young scientists.

Концепция “захвата земли”: глобальный и национальный аспекты

The correct understanding of the current world political agenda associated with changes in the global agrifood system is accompanied by the development of new analytical models. The present work is also devoted to the study of the “Land Grabbing” concept as one of innovative tools of the theoretical apparatus of political science. Using the method of historical and logical unity, the author evaluates the role of the “Land Grabbing” strategy, in comparison with “Double Movement” theory and the typology of international food regimes. In particular, the article is devoted to the study of the stages of emergence and evolution of this concept, unfamiliar to the Russian academic community. Based on a comparative analysis, all theories used to describe the expropriation of ecosystem resources are compared. As a result of the procedure, the compilation feature of all related concepts is diagnosed, and the hidden discursive disagreement is eliminated. Using the method of critical analysis, the author develops a “Two-phase model of the occupation of control”, which emphasizes the dominant position of the Conflict paradigm – the semantic module of the idea of “Land Grabbing”. In the experimental part of the article, the effectiveness of the “Land Grabbing” concept is verified on a specific example – the agricultural sector of the Russian Federation. Via the method of statistical observation, the author analyzes the dynamics of property rights and systematizes the register of commercial contracts concluded with agricultural land in the period from 2000 to 2023. It is proved that foreign corporations are the ultimate beneficiaries in more than 90% of cases of all land transactions. Relying on the method of secondary data analysis, the author identifies the largest commercial owners of agricultural land and the leading countries in offshore exploitation of the general domestic ecosystem resource. By the visualization method, a “Tree-factor model of Land Grabbing” is constructed, the indicators of which are the processes of Corporatization, Foreignization and Catastrophization. In the final part of the work, the author simulates a predictive scenario for the transformation of the global food system based on a retrospective analysis of international food regimes. At the same time, a legal examination of the strategy for national security of the Russian Federation is conducted. Drawing on the analysis performed, the author formulates recommendations relevant to the current geopolitical situation.

Male Educators in Pre-School Education: Recognition or Anxiety?

Introduction. Some parts of the education system, especially the pre-school and primary phases, remain almost exclusively “female” professional niches, and for years this dramatic gender imbalance in the educational workforce worldwide has been considered “natural” and not worthy of research. The situation has begun to change in the last two decades, as more and more researchers internationally have begun to study various aspects of male participation in early childhood education and care. The Russian academic community has been slow to join the debate, and Russian publications on males in Early Childhood Education and Care are next to naught. Materials and Methods. The authors used a diverse pool of primary and secondary information sources, such as official statistics, open source publications (content analysis of the texts of the “Kindergarten Dads” project) and newly collected empirical data (survey of 142 students of the Institute of Pedagogy and Psychology of Education of the Moscow City Pedagogical University (2022 year) and the vision of the Institute’s director, Professor A. I. Savenkov), to explore the following questions: 1) How many male educators work in the pre-school sector and in what capacity? 2) How are male educators represented in public and professional discourses? 3) What strategies have been used to attract more men into the sector and how successful have they been? Results. Despite the limitations of the available statistical data, some general conclusions can be drawn: the proportion of male pre-school educators in Russia has always remained extremely low. A peculiar combination of references to classical masculinity and gender equality in the construction of the image of a male educator. Summarizing the main results of the study, perhaps the most important point to highlight is the complexity and heterogeneity of teacher traineesʼ perceptions of the profession, their future, and male teachers. Discussion and Conclusion. Overall, our statistical analysis suggests that while barriers to more men entering the pre-school teaching profession are still prevalent and continue to create obstacles, they may not be as insurmountable as hypothesised and can be reduced, if not overcome, through targeted educational policies. Our case studies show that to be successful, recruitment and retention strategies need to address a range of common and male-specific barriers. These include changing the social image of pre-school sector as a female domain, improving pay and career prospects for some, if not all, types of jobs in the sector.

Critical Review of the University Management Practices Evolution

This article discusses the evolution of university management practices since a new public management ideology has been introduced in higher education. Novelty is the systematic critical review of university managerialism practices imposed over the last 40 years. The reasons for the emergence of university managerialism, its theoretical foundations, and its application in the management of higher educational institutions are shown. The features of university managerialism in Russian higher education are discussed. Possible ways of developing university management when organizing university activities under the financial model of severely limited funds are outlined. The article may be of interest to senior education officials and the Russian academic community.

Debating academic boycotts and cooperation in the context of Russia’s war against Ukraine

This forum is a contribution to debates over the (im)possibility of cooperating with the Russian academic community while Russia’s war against Ukraine continues. After briefly reviewing previous studies on the effectiveness and morality of academic sanctions, the forum continues to assess the politics and effectiveness of the academic boycott in changing the belligerent behaviour of the Russian regime. For this purpose, it introduces the idea of ontological (in)security and moves on to discuss, from different perspectives, whether sanctions and boycotts may lead to policy change by way of destabilizing the ontological security of Russia, or whether the academic boycott contributes to strengthening the ruling authoritarian regime.

No natural colonization: the early Soviet school of historical anti-colonialism

ABSTRACT This paper discusses Soviet Marxist historical narratives of the 1920s and early 1930s that sought to reframe Russian history as a process driven by commercial capital and analyzed Russian territorial expansion and its historical scholarship in terms such as settler colonialism and indigenous erasure. As of now, the corpus of works by early Soviet Marxist historians still represents the most massive and sustained effort to challenge imperial narratives of Russian history from within the Russian academic community. Resonating with current conversations about Russian imperialism and colonialism, this intellectual tradition represents a major contribution to the postcolonial turn in studies of Russian history.

Post-Secular Mirasism and Reforming Islam in Russia: From Euro-Islam to Confessional Scholarship

ABSTRACT This article offers a view of the process of the formation of post-Soviet Islam in Russia as a result of the post-secular interaction between academic and religious areas – the boundaries between which are shown to be significantly blurred. It argues that, in the study of post-Soviet Islam, insufficient attention has been paid to the complex interactions between Islam and the Russian academic field. The article aims to fill this gap by providing examples of how, on the one hand, secular scholars become Muslim actors – bringing their secular, most often Soviet intellectual baggage to the Muslim sphere – and, on the other, how members of the Muslim clergy seek to influence the Russian academic community by claiming a role in the production of academic knowledge about Islam and Muslims as equal actors. Despite the post-secular nature of this interaction, it is the secular academic side that dominates.

Образ России в религиоведческом дискурсе

The aim of this article is to conceptualize the processes of constitution and institutionalization of Russia’s image by the Russian academic community at the beginning of the 21st century. I focus on the role of religious studies in the production of the concept of Russia as a nation with successful practices of religious pluralism, with a developing model of a post-secular society where religious communities are seen as part of civic society that can serve as one of the foundations for Russia’s civilization state’s stability as a commonwealth of peoples with different religious identities. Knowledge produced by religious studies will, in our opinion, only become more significant for the task of determining Russia’s civilizational strategy in the 21st century, including both theory and methodology, and practice.

Postponed Problems of University Management: A Strategic Dimension

This research article discusses the latest changes within the triangle of higher education system coordination: the state – the market – the academic community, i. e. the changes in the interests of stakeholders. The topicality of this issue lies in the fact that the state of stakeholders’ interests determines the content of the factors of their impact on higher education institutions. The task of university management is to build effective mechanisms for adapting the universities’ activities to environmental factors. The author studies the stakeholders’ interests. For the state, these imply choosing a method for the effective use of budgetary resources, which would have a social and economic effect. For the market, these interests include forming educational level content self-sufficiency in the conditions of «massivization» of higher education and determining the content of education technologies, which take into account the specific features of the Z generation. For the academic community, here belongs the organizational design of the «plastic transformation» of academic identity that has taken place. The paper discusses the possibilities of solving the identified problems of university management, which have a strategic dimension, by creating a mechanism for active universities’ adaptation to the current environmental conditions. The research may be of interest to senior officials of higher education, as well as to the Russian academic community.

The Infantile Disorder of Education: How Long Will It Continue? (An Open Letter to Russian Minister of Education O.Y. Vasilieva)

ABSTRACT This open letter is addressed to Russian Minister of Education O.Y. Vasilieva and asks the minister to change the “Federal Program for the Development of Russian Education in 2016−2020,” because it is incapable of solving the major problems facing Russian education, especially in the case of higher education. The author describes five major problems facing the Russian academic community: lack of funding, over-bureaucratization, dishonesty and plagiarism, commercialization, and the fear and uncertainty that currently permeate Russian academia. To solve these issues, more public funding is needed to alleviate the workload of professors and to encourage hardworking and talented students to respect and pursue academic excellence.

In Support of V. Afanasyeva’s Open Letter to Russian Minister of Education O.Y. Vasilieva

ABSTRACT The author writes in support of Dr. Afanasyeva’s open letter to Russian Minister of Education O.Y. Vasilieva. He agrees with Dr. Afanasyeva’s assessment of the current problems facing the Russian academic community in terms of both the awarding of degrees and the process of publishing peer-reviewed articles. The reduction of publicly funded universities and the commercialization of academia have had a detrimental effect on academic standards. While relaxed academic standards have led to plagiarism and improper accreditation, the over-bureaucratization of the academic process has also led to unnecessary procedures that often stymie scientific research and the publication of legitimate research.

Suspicious Neighbour: Russia’s Role in the Quest for the EU’s Strategic Autonomy

The article explains the roots, the essence and the consequences of the Russian approach to the European Union’s idea of strategic autonomy. While the EU’s ambition is treated with a degree of hope for a more balanced world by the Russian academic community, the official attitude is clearly sceptical. Russian understanding of sovereignty leaves little place for such a specific actor as the EU. At the same time, Russia itself is struggling to ensure autonomy and equilibrium on the global level. In spite of the high scepticism with regard to the future of the strategic autonomy, its success would matter for Russia, especially in the field of economy and digitalization. The process of acquiring strategic autonomy would be, on the other hand, influenced by the perception of the Russian challenge. Attention is also paid to the transatlantic bond, which is interpreted very differently – with constant suspicion in Russia and as a helping tool in the West. The new stage of world politics is set in Asia, where the EU and Russia will struggle to ensure their positions in competition with more adapted actors. Overall, the EU’s strategic autonomy discussion is most important for countries that can in some way contribute to achieving it, which Russia is not. Russia, EU, NATO, Sovereignty, Autonomy, Transatlantic Dependency, Asia, Digitalization

УЗБЕКИСТАН И РОССИЯ. НОВЫЙ ШАГ К ВЗАИМОПОНИМАНИЮ РЕЦ. НА: ТРУДЫ ИНСТИТУТА ПОСТСОВЕТСКИХ И МЕЖРЕГИОНАЛЬНЫХ ИССЛЕДОВАНИЙ. ВЫП. 4: УЗБЕКИСТАНОВЕДЕНИЕ / ОТВ. РЕД. Е.И. ПИВОВАР. М.: РГГУ, 2021

This publication considers the latest issue of the “Proceedings of the Institute of Post-Soviet and Interregional Studies”. The “Proceedings of the Institute of Post-Soviet and Interregional Studies” is an annual publication that examines issues in the history of post-Soviet states closely connected to Russia in terms of policy, economy, and culture. It has been published since 2018; the first issue was dedicated to Ukraine (2018), the second one to Kazakhstan (2019), the third one to Azerbaijan (2020), and, finally, the issue dedicated to the Republic of Uzbekistan was prepared and published in 2021. The author of the review emphasizes that Uzbekistan has a special place in the Central Asian region and, consequently, in Russian policy concerning Central Asia, as well as in the whole Russian policy in the post-Soviet space. Moreover, the author notes the importance of cooperation between Russia and Uzbekistan in scientific and educational spheres and importance of studying Russian history in Uzbekistan and the history of Uzbekistan in Russia. The author notes particularly that Uzbekistan Studies is a part of the educational cycle implemented by the Institute of Post-Soviet and Interregional Studies within the framework of a bachelor degree programme (“Russia and Turkey in modern Eurasia: Foreign Policy, Society, Culture”) and a master degree programme (“History and Geopolitics of Modern Eurasia”). Analysing publications that make up the issue under the study, the author emphasizes that the issue was prepared by the Institute of Post-Soviet and Interregional Studies in collaboration with the Institute of World History and the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Lomonosov Moscow State University, and scientific and educational institutions of Uzbekistan. According to the author, articles in that collection provide a new perspective on the history of Uzbekistan and contribute to its deeper understanding by the Russian academic community.

“SPEAKING OF THE OTHER, DESCRIBING THE OTHER, THE OBSERVER REPORTS MUCH MORE ABOUT HIMSELF”. Ekaterina Boltunova’s Interview with Maria Leskinen

With the permission of the editorial board of the journal Historical expertise we publish the interview with Maria Voittovna Leskinen, Doctor of Historical Sciences, lead researcher of the Institute for Slavic Studies of the Russian Academy of Science. She was interviewed by Ekaterina Mikhailovna Boltunova, Doctor of Historical Sciences, professor, head of the International Laboratory for the Regional History of Russia in the National Research University Higher School of Economics. The text of the interview was first published on the website of the journal Historical expertise in the April 2021 and hasn’t been printed before. Area of Maria Leskinen’s expertise is study of the images and perceptions of ethnocultural distinctivness of the peoples in the public and scientifi c discources. She analyzed the issues of formation of the Polish Sarmatian ideology of the 16th–17th centuries, also history and evolution of the hetero- and autostereotypes of the Poles and Finns in the ethnological and educational conceptions of the Russian Empire in the second half of the 19th century. Her last papers are dedicated to reconstruction of the perceptions of Great Russians and Little Russians as the „branches“ of the triune Russian people by russian academic community, and also to the debates about the ways of representation of the ideal type of a Great Russian during the period of emperial nationmaking. The interview touches on an issue of situation with reviewing in the national historical science, its quality and the state of the professional critisizing and polemic.

International conference "Plagiarism Detection": does an academic journal need plagiarism checking?

This article presents the overview of the Vth and VIth annual International Scientific and Practical Conference "Plagiarism Detection" (hereinafter – the conference; website: ozconf.ru), held October, 2020 and 2021. The main aim of this major professional platform is to create expert environment for discussing plagiarism in the educational and scientific communities in the CIS countries, to inform about the novel text processing technologies, text mining and assessing its originality, as well as to discuss the use electronic resources in education and science to facilitate networking of specialists. The article reviews some definitions and presents examples of unethical behaviour in science, such as plagiarism, self-plagiarism, duplication (i.e. multiple publications), fraud and data fabrication. By using such practices some unscrupulous authors assign to themselves the credit of other scientists’ achievements and results, present out-dated results as new, perform data hacking and manipulate research process to obtain an anticipated result. Altogether such practice builds the illusion of promoting the knowledge and publication activity, providing the authors with access to financial support, salary increase, career promotion, bogus authority and standing in the science environment. The article also presents some law aspects concerning the authorship and plagiarism in the Russian academic community, reiterating that plagiarism is a criminal law category and can be regarded as a crime if it causes substantial damage to authors or copyright holders. Revealing errors, typos, plagiarism and other infringements of ethical norms and regulations in works, published by many journals and publishers, is comparable with eroding credibility and authority, as well as necessitating special checks, errata correction and possible retraction of publications. The situation, however, looks different if the victimized scientists consider compensation for the violation of the copyright and property ownership rights. The article lists examples and the main reasons for retracting fraudulent publications. The aim of retraction is to correct the information published, ensuring its validity, rather than to punish the authors. In the Russian research publishing environment publication retraction has been so far rather scarce. Yet globally the practice of retraction is rather widely spread. The article also summarizes the main features distinguishing unethical publishers, focusing on similarities and differences between journal-clones and journal-predators. It is estimated that currently there is information about hundreds of hijacked journals and more than one hundred thousand authors of the publications in journal-clones. The article also presents some information, pertaining to the history of “Antiplagiat” company establishment and its service development, drawing attention to different points of view about the need to use “Antiplagiat” system or other software for checking education and research publications for plagiarism. It is concluded that any search engines are not ideal and cannot substitute humans in crucial decision-making about a publication. Only an expert in the field, who can judge adequately about the exact substantive nature of text duplications and can assess adequately the scale of borrowing, shall make such decisions. Shifting responsibility from a human being to the “Antiplagiat” system by citing the rate of borrowings, provided by the system, is unethical practice as well.

To the question of modernity and corresponding representations of subjectivity: “dividual” and social organizations

This article is part of the extensive research of value characteristics of IT community and their potential for innovative development. In view of this, the author examines the problem of determination of the modern cultural situation and, as a result, deduction of the criterion that establishes what “modern” is. Based on the previously acquired conclusions (according to which, such criterion is the consideration of irreducible multiplicity, and the major risk is the loss of autonomy by individuals), the author aims to find the model of subjectivity that would be simultaneously multiple and autonomous. The search for the model that meets such criterion is carried out through referring to the control technologies developed within the framework of third-order cybernetics. The novelty of this article consists in peculiarity of the approach towards solution of the set task: the question in the form and method of determination of modernity has been first raised and  solved within the framework of the Russian academic philosophical community at  the previous stage of research, which determines the relevance at the current stage as well. Comparison of the developments of Russian and foreign authors reveals the parallelism between the development of cybernetics and psychoanalysis; demonstrates the conceptual intersections of the third-order cybernetics and schizoanalysis; establishes the conformity between the subjectivity of the individual and the type of organizations they are engaged in. The article offers the concept of “dividual” as a model suitable for solution of the set task. The conclusions is made that the existing potential of the IT community for modernization is neutralized in the context of transition towards the hierarchical structure of the organization.

Mass Media as a Tool for Social Inclusion of People with Disabilities: Thematically Universal and Specialized Editions (on the Example of Deaf-Press)

The study examined the role of national press in the process of social inclusion and integration of deaf community. We found that in the light of the problems of social inclusion, it is necessary to address the characteristics of certain groups of people with disabilities, in particular, specific needs of people with hearing impairments. Different life practices of people with hearing disabilities make it important to study this particular segment of population and various communication strategies that facilitate the process of their social integration. Russian academic community does not consider people with hearing disabilities as a separate cultural and sociolinguistic group but as a part of a bigger group of people with different kinds of disabilities. The present study described the differences between the concepts of “socialization”, “adaptation”, “integration" and "inclusion", and also highlighted the importance of studying the process of inclusion. Additionally, the authors described the features of the deaf community and approaches to study this particular segment of population. The article presents statistical, documented and theoretical sources to be used as the basis for empirical research. In order to get the most complete picture of the role of the press in matters of social inclusion, the authors considered both socio-political press and specialized press directly targeting deaf community. Identifying drawbacks of current media coverage the authors explored and showed different ways to improve it. A content analysis of socio-political and specialized publications was implemented, which made it possible to form a basis for the formation of recommendations for domestic media.

On the modern Russian online radio broadcasting

The subject of this research is broadcasting in the modern digital age. The object is the modern Russian online radio broadcasting. The goal lies in examination of the role of online radio broadcasting in the modern Russian digital space. The author aims to trace the dynamics of the development of online radio broadcasting in Russia and abroad, summarize the conclusions of the Russian researchers on the development trends of online radio broadcasting in Russia for the past decade, analyze the current state of Russian online radio broadcasting with its positive and negative sides, make recommendation for optimization of the study of Russian online radio broadcasting. The novelty of this article lies in the analysis of evolution of the Russian online radio broadcasting in the context of modern trends of the Russian and US information space. The conclusion is made that online radio broadcasting occupies a special niche within the global and Russian digital information space for the two decades of the XXI century. The dynamically developing information technologies enhance the convergent nature of this type of media, contributing to its penetration into modern social networks through mobile telephony. The US statistical data indicate testify to the growing popularity of online radio broadcasting in the United States. Various Russian data indicate a decline in the popularity of radio broadcasting overall, but rise of popularity of online radio broadcasting among certain segments of the Russian audience. The Russian academic community should increase cooperation with the media research centers to arrange consistent sources of statistical information for optimization of the study of online radio broadcasting in Russia.