Inequalities in science and their social conditions: The Polish (sub)field of legal philosophy

Abstract

Contrary to common sense visions, the production of cultural content, including scientific knowledge (theory, methods, paradigms, etc.) is embedded in specific social structures. Scientific practices do not take place freely between egalitarian agents but, like other social phenomena, are subject to the mechanisms of monopolization as well as social and symbolic hierarchization. This does not mean, however, that the hierarchies of the scientific world are a simple reflection of general social inequalities (social class system). In fact, the scientific world is a relatively separate universe with its own divisions and specific resources for the social game. The aim of the article is to reveal and explain these specific inequalities on the example of the internal functioning of the Polish (sub)field of legal philosophy. This (sub)field, set at the intersection of the impact lines of several disciplines (law, philosophy, sociology) and external forces (the legal professional market), gives an insight into the wider processes in which science is involved and, consequently, how it is produced. The study, based on detailed prosopographical data, includes all scholars employed in departments of philosophical and theory of law at all Polish universities (n = 148). The research method is a geometric data analysis. In addition to indicating the hidden structural social and symbolic inequalities between individuals, the analysis also reveals the non-obvious hierarchy of universities and its meaning in the studied universe.