Disturbance in Dialogue as the Norm
Levada & Co. as Lonely Voices in the Wilderness
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
Structural deficits and diverging interests are preventing a productive dialogue between German and Russian social scientists. This affects above all the theoretically demanding Levada group. This disturbance in dialogue has several sources. In Russia, these are the group’s position outside academia and its allegedly antiquated scientific ethos, which is based on Weber’s values. In Germany, it is the inclination of the social sciences to instrumentalise their Russian colleagues’ empirical research within the framework of prevailing theoretical paradigms. Furthermore, the anthropological limits of understanding the other complicate reception of the Levada group’s thinking.
(Osteuropa 1/2008, pp. 17–20)