Institute of Sociology of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic

Science and research are increasingly becoming subject to managerial visions and procedures. Building on an international research project Knowledge, institutions and gender: an East–West comparative study (FP 6, 2006–2008, EC) this project aims to explore the ways in which policy rules are performative for everyday research (and educational) realities, and the ways in which institutions and researchers negotiate their social and epistemic space vis-à-vis those rules – thus translating, using and subverting them. We concentrate on two areas: growing into science by junior (PhD and postdoctoral) researchers, and research assessment and accountability. We pay special attention to differences between disciplines and organisational contexts of these processes. We use qualitative ethnographic data generated within the Knowledge, institutions and gender project and carry out additional focus group and individual interviews, and the study of documents.