„Reformy nauki” w Europie Środkowo-Wschodniej: fatalizm wmówionej peryferyjności

Abstract

The essay focuses on the condition of science in in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe after 2001. In all the countries of this region (Poland Ukraine, the Baltic and Balkan states, Belarus, Moldavia, and Russia), there can be observed some attempts to “reform” the systems of science, higher education, and research institutions. Such schemes are conceived by politicians to demonstrate their determination to “reform” various spheres of social life. The political benefits that are achieved in the process turn out to be rather inconsiderable. That is why such reforms are often renounced, and then undertaken again, which causes institutional chaos and lack of stability. More often than not, “reforming” science comes down to the slavish imitation of Western ideas, which originally were implemented in different historical and social contexts. This, in turn, leads to the widespread imitation (particularly in the humanities) of everything that comes from the mythologized West: from methodologies to aims to hierarchies to ideological justifi cation of research.