This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Gerber, T. P. Articles by Yarsike Ball, D. Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Scientists in a Changed Institutional Environment

Subjective Adaptation and Social Responsibility Norms in Russia

Department of Sociology, 1180 Observatory Drive, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706, tgerber{at}ssc.wisc.edu

Deborah Yarsike Ball

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, 7000 East Avenue, Livermore, CA 94551, USA, dyball{at}llnl.gov

How do scientists react when the institutional setting in which they conduct their work changes radically? How do long-standing norms regarding the social responsibility of scientists fare? What factors influence whether scientists embrace or reject the new institutions and norms? We examine these questions using data from a unique survey of 602 scientists in Russia, whose research institutions experienced a sustained crisis and sweeping changes following the collapse of the Soviet Union. We develop measures of how respondents view financing based on grants and other institutional changes in the Russian science system, as well as measures of two norms regarding scientists' social responsibility. We find that the majority of scientists have adapted, in the sense that they hold positive views of the new institutions, but a diversity of orientations remains. Social responsibility norms are common but far from universal among Russian scientists. The main correlates of adaptation are age and current success at negotiating the new institutions, though prospective success, work context, and ethnicity have some of the hypothesized associations. As for social responsibility norms, the main source of variation is age: younger scientists are more likely to embrace individualistic rather than socially oriented norms.

Key Words: institutional change • professional norms • scientists

Social Studies of Science, Vol. 39, No. 4, 529-567 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/0306312709103477


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?