From Russia with...

Guests of the LCSR Conference shared their impressions of the event and the Lab

The Laboratory for Comparative Social Research (LCSR) was founded almost two years ago. Though it seems like a short time, the laboratory has now become a full-scale research center, bringing together scholars with an impressive range of experience and skills.

Among staff and associate researchers, there are not only sociologists and political scientists from Russia and the former Soviet Union, but researchers from the United States, Germany, Luxembourg, Poland, Israel, and many other countries besides. As well as conducting their own projects, they actively participate in the laboratory’s work, and help younger sociologists to break new ground in the social sciences. The laboratory provides a unique atmosphere of amiability and support, where the ideas of research assistants, barely familiar with social scientific research methods, are valued and respected alongside those of reputable scholars. In this way the LCSR provides a great opportunity for both younger and more senior researchers to interact in an environment that is non-hierarchical, egalitarian, and exciting.

During the second LCSR conference, “Social Change in Cross-National Perspective”, held from 6-10 November, participants could observe both the supportive atmosphere of the LCSR team and the progress of its research projects. Several guest invitees were interviewed to share their impressions of the conference, their participation, and the work of the laboratory.

Joshua Dubrow (Polish Academy of Sciences), said he admired the quality of the methodological training among younger social scientists at the LCSR. He said: “I am actually surprised; it’s not an unpleasant surprise, that it is mostly students and their progress reports. I think that’s fine. I can’t put it into words how wonderful it must be for students to have this. I am not talking about myself, but rather - to have people like Ronald Inglehart, Christian Welzel, Andrey Sherbak, and Eduard Ponarin, who are very good at cross-national studies, cross-national research, and getting expert advice, constantly, consistently, in public, in private - the students can do nothing but benefit”.

Francesco Sarracino  (University of Siena, Italy) agreed with Joshua: “I’m very positively impressed by the works of the lab. It’s fantastic to be in this group because there are researchers from different domains, with different experiences. There are people presenting new projects, there are people presenting ongoing projects, there are people presenting completed projects, and they have all the possibilities to exchange information. So the researchers can learn from the more experienced ones, and on the other side, you get the opportunity to brainstorm with so many different minds. Experienced and less experienced researchers can give each other spillovers, good positive spillovers, and they can benefit by having advisors from others. They can definitely push their research and maximize the probability of getting published”.

For Zsófia Ignácz (Jacobs University Bremen) it was not the first time she visited LCSR’s events. And so she could gauge the progress  made by the laboratory’s team in the last few months: “I’ve already known what to expect given the summer school, and it met all my expectations since again the presentations were truly first class. Even the new projects were all well prepared. The schedule is intense, and maybe Stahanov would think we are outdoing him. But on the other hand… If you can budget your time then you will have fun!”

In just two years the international staff of the Laboratory has achieved significant success. What’s next? Almost certainly, new associations and new projects, building the LCSR network around the world, united by a passion for academic research and a drive to advance human knowledge.

by Ekaterina Turanova