Political scientists talked about the meaning of life

The topic of the round table, organized on Thursday by the Expert Institute for Social Research (EISI) at the site of the MIA “Russia Today”, was “Young Political Scientists of Russia”. All those present were participants or experts of the recent Digoria forum of young political scientists. But at the round table, they discussed not the results of the forum, but questions of an existential nature: who are political scientists, how do they differ from impostors from TV, and why are they needed at all.

The details of what exactly both young and experienced political scientists from among the experts were doing at the Digoria forum recently held in the Moscow region have not become public: all its participants signed a non-disclosure agreement. The participants of the EISI round table also did not go into details and discussed not their immediate work, but the general meaning and purpose of political scientists in modern realities.

The tone of the discussion was set by the head of the directorate of Digoria, Zaurbek Khugaev, who noted that political scientists “understand the political, socio-economic context, are deeply immersed in digital reality.”

“In the emerging scientific situation, the scientific sovereignty of Russia is determined not only within the framework of the technological sector of our science. The socio-humanitarian sciences make a significant contribution. The community of young political scientists can and should become a conductor of national ideas and traditions of political science and practice in our country,” Antonina Selezneva, who headed one of the “shops” at the forum, minted. According to her, now there is a demand for scientific concepts that take into account the historical path and the formation of Russian statehood, national political culture and mentality. She also noted that young political scientists are needed for “political education”, or rather, to convey the right values ​​to the masses. “Every citizen must understand the values ​​and semantic foundations that underlie the development of our country. Otherwise, a person is formed who is cut off from his land, from his homeland, and for whom other people’s traditions can be closer, more understandable and more pleasant than our own,” Ms. Selezneva explained.

“A young political scientist today is a new transformation of a crisis manager who feels what is happening in the country and the world, and can broadcast it to target audiences and offer non-standard, non-trivial visions and solutions,” the program director of Digoria added a few strokes to what was said. » Victoria Karpova.

According to another forum participant, political scientist Alexander Asafov, his young colleagues can help modern politics by simplifying the political lexicon. Now the main “actors” in this area speak any language other than understandable to the layman, the expert lamented: “Someone speaks as a clerk. Someone speaks in complex constructions, believing that an expert from an academic environment should speak in this way.

Another forum participant, Kirill Kotov, immediately expressed his readiness to correct this state of affairs: “We need to build communication with everyone, including young people, in an interesting, trusting and understandable way. Interesting – we should talk about topics of interest to young people. Trust – we must choose reference sources of information: first of all, young people trust people like them. Clearly, in the language of youth.”

During the discussion, it also became clear that its participants are very concerned about the problem of those who are called political scientists, but who in fact are not. “There is a tradition in the media that a person whose expertise is incomprehensible is given such a caption – “political scientist”. And as a result, such political scientists speak out on all topics: from the work of a singer who created something, and ending with issues of medicine, health care and the cost of a barrel of oil,” complained Mr. Asafov. Therefore, in his opinion, young political scientists should return “the value of political science expertise.”

This idea was supported by the representative of the company “Polylog” Nikita Setov. In his opinion, sometimes the situation is even more “frightening”: “One and the same person can be a political scientist on some TV channels, but not on others. At such moments, it becomes completely uncomfortable and insulting for the profession. Not all people have a clear understanding of what a political scientist does.” As a result, many believe that a political scientist is someone who interprets the news agenda or deals with elections, and this is not entirely true, Mr. Setov emphasized. He himself is sure that a political scientist is someone who improves people’s lives with his projects. A living example of such an “improvement of life” at the round table was the participant of “Digoria” Lilia Travina. At the forum, she was awarded the award of the same name for a project to organize communication between residents and authorities through WhatsApp chats.

Andrey Vinokurov