{"title":"From local informalities to meritocracy. How Central and Eastern European social scientists perceive the norms of their field","authors":"Márton Demeter, Sara Simon, M. Goyanes","doi":"10.47743/ejes-2022-0101","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"While there is extensive literature that discusses the historical and institutional background of the relative underdevelopment of Central and Eastern European (CEE) academia in social sciences, we have a limited knowledge on how academics of the region perceive the culture of their scholarly fields. Building upon survey data from 481 social scientists from 16 CEE countries, this paper analyses the perceived meritocracy of the academic system. We found significant positive associations between meritocracy, publication requirements for promotions and international publication records. Moreover, results show that academic capital is typically accumulated though informal networks and even from the family, while the role of formal education is less important. Our findings suggest that raising the level of meritocracy in promotion and recruitment processes might help increase the international visibility of CEE social sciences through a growth in international publications, but also indicated that research institutions should motivate CEE scholars with both financial rewards and a reduction in teaching duties.","PeriodicalId":43713,"journal":{"name":"Eastern Journal of European Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7000,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"1","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Eastern Journal of European Studies","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.47743/ejes-2022-0101","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"AREA STUDIES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 1
Abstract
While there is extensive literature that discusses the historical and institutional background of the relative underdevelopment of Central and Eastern European (CEE) academia in social sciences, we have a limited knowledge on how academics of the region perceive the culture of their scholarly fields. Building upon survey data from 481 social scientists from 16 CEE countries, this paper analyses the perceived meritocracy of the academic system. We found significant positive associations between meritocracy, publication requirements for promotions and international publication records. Moreover, results show that academic capital is typically accumulated though informal networks and even from the family, while the role of formal education is less important. Our findings suggest that raising the level of meritocracy in promotion and recruitment processes might help increase the international visibility of CEE social sciences through a growth in international publications, but also indicated that research institutions should motivate CEE scholars with both financial rewards and a reduction in teaching duties.
期刊介绍:
The Eastern Journal of European Studies (EJES) seeks to provide a forum for multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary dialogue between ideas, and a framework for theoretical and empirical analyses covering major topics in European studies: European history, politics, European economy and European policies, EU community law, European culture and society. EJES encourages studies focusing on Central and Eastern Europe (including Eastern Neighbourhood) in order to better understand its transformations induced by the integration process and to address its specific challenges by supporting scientific debates on the general European theory and practice. Furthermore, the editorial board regularly invites distinguished guest editors to coordinate thematic issues.