Aristoscientists, academic proletariat and reassembling the mega-machine

21St Century Survival Strategies of the Estonian Academia

Bibliographic Data

ID22947753
AuthorsVoldemar Tomusk (0000-0002-3479-1782, corresponding author)
Year2003
Volume13
Issue1
Pages77-100
Publication date2003-03-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Studies in Sociology of Education (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0962-0214 • E-ISSN: 1747-5066
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/09620210300200104
OpenAlexW4239087401
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited12

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.

Capitalism · Elite · Estonian · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Global Educational Policies and Reforms · Higher Education Governance and Development · Law · University Challenges and Reforms

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