Informal Academic Entrepreneurship: Current State and Development Trends

Abstract

The concept of academic capitalism appeared in the international sociological discourse in the 1990s. However, Russian academic capitalism has taken unconventional forms as it develops in the shadow informal environment of the academic labor market. It covers a wide range of academic activities, e.g. tutorship, extra classes, ghost-writing of essays, theses and graduation papers, etc. Quite often, federal universities and research centers order grant reports, state assignments papers, and manuscripts for top peer-reviewed journals from provincial academics. The Russian market of shadow academic entrepreneurship is closed, secretive, tough, and highly competitive. The COVID-19 pandemic gave it a new rise: it increased three times in 2020–2021. New forms of digital employment and shadow academic capitalism lead to new social trends, e.g. new priorities appear in the subject of scientific research as academic institutions lose their profile in favor of their shadow academic employers. New flexible informal academic structures demonstrate faceted over-connectivity, non-market mechanisms of academic competition, and new forms of digital and traditional academic exploitation. Other trends include shadow branding of universities, proletarization and feudalization of academic labor, conflict of interests in science and education, formation of demand for low-quality higher education, monopolization in the academic market, etc. As a result, the academic community in Russia is transforming into a closed estate with its digital academic elite, middle class of academic entrepreneurs, and digital academic proletarians.