The “Strong” and “Weak” Social Science: A Look through the Prism of Russian Realities

The article proposes to introduce and apply the concepts of “strong” and “weak” science, which in their research focus on the cognitive practices of social sciences. A “strong” social science (in a region or in the world) is a science whose representatives hold the leading position in the process of producing social knowledge as a whole. A “weak” social science is a science whose representatives occupy the position of outsiders in the production of social knowledge. The transformation of Russian social science from “weak” to “strong” requires the following prerequisites: leaning on the “inner” reserves; state support; development of freedom and democracy, as well as active national non-government foundations; and development of inter-disciplinary and poly-disciplinary research.

a strong science, a weak science, social science, sociology of science