Bitter Lamentations (or professional self-reflections)

Abstract

Commenting on two polemics (Wagner–Sorokowski, Sztompka–Burawoy), the author presents a chance to raise questions about academic self-reflection. A Polish sociologist working in Warsaw and Paris questions the relevance of ranking based on publications in English periodicals. Her arguments are countered by a psychologist who finds both rankings and hierarchy of journals, with English ones on top, rational. While sharing some of her doubts about “rankophilia”, the author tries to raise questions about global pecking order, and self-hierarchization of academic mechanisms of professional recognition. Burawoy’s point that sociology should study societies from the point of view of a civil society and not according to the formatting of societies by markets and states seems worth noting.