An examination of the processes of Russian scientists’ socialization and professionalization in the 18th and the first half of the 19th century

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The paper examines the early period in the development of science as profession in Russia. To this end, a new conceptual approach was developed to study the processes of the scientists’ socialization and professionalization. The proposed study program includes the following: (a) the search for a system of the cognitive and institutional structures of scientific activities; (b) the analysis of the disciplinary structure of scientific knowledge; (c) the study on the roles of individual professional groups in the development of natural science community; and (d) the identification of the factors that influenced the persons’ motivation to pursue scientific work. The conclusions stemming from this study provide a reference point for further studies on the historico-scientific aspects of the scientists’ professional careers. In the 18<sup>th</sup> century, professional cadre for natural science in Russia mostly comprised foreign scientists, professors and teachers or alumni of the European universities. However, the Russian scientists, graduates of the Academic University, Moscow University, European universities, and medical and engineering schools, emerged as early as in the second half of the 18th century. In the early 19th century, Russian science became able to develop relatively independently from the state – within the framework of the scientific and scientific-and-practical societies. The inflow of scientific personnel into natural science was mostly from among the physicians and pharmacists, mining and military engineers, as well as from among the teachers at educational institutions, who were mostly medical professionals and engineers too. Professional teachers who were graduates from teachers colleges at the universities began to engage in scientific work in the 19th century.

 

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, , , , An examination of the processes of Russian scientists’ socialization and professionalization in the 18th and the first half of the 19th century, Voprosy Istorii Estestvoznaniia i Tekhniki [Studies in History of Science and Technology], , p.  479-505

     
    © Studies in the History of Science and Technology: Quarterly scientific journal of the Russian Academy of Sciences (2015)
    ISSN 0205-9606. Индекс 70143