Научный капитал и научная элита

Социологическое обозрение. 2026. Т. 25. № 3. С. 36–61.

Katchanov Y. L.

The paper proposes a theoretical framework for analyzing the scientific elite, conceptualizing knowledge production as a dynamic structure shaped by internal contradictions. The scientific elite is understood not as a collection of outstanding researchers, but as a structural effect of knowledge production — a position within the scientific space that concentrates the maximum volume of scientific capital and establishes the horizon of meaning for all agents. The space of science is interpreted as a multidimensional distribution of agents across positions, where relations take precedence over entities. The generative principle of this space is scientific capital — a relational entity reproduced through practices and acting simultaneously as both a precondition for and a result of scientific activity. In contrast, administrative capital represents the external conditions of science’s existence: while excluded from the domain of scientific knowledge proper, it functions as a constitutive instrument of institutional management. The contradiction between these two types of capital is irreducible; it determines the dynamics of contemporary science and sets the limits of possible transformations. The scientific elite, as the symbolic center of the scientific space, prefigures the development of the periphery, setting patterns and norms. The proposed analysis has practical implications: understanding the elite as a structural surplus allows for a move beyond moralizing critique toward the mechanisms in which scientific inequality is reproduced. It also reveals the limitations of political interventions aimed at the “democratization” of science, which, by ignoring the immanent structure of knowledge production, merely reproduce existing hierarchies.

Keywords: социология науки, научный капитал, социологическая теория, научная элита, административный капитал, пространство науки