THE POWER OF REPUTATION

Editorial Note

This issue of the journal examines reputation mechanisms and some of the specific features of their functioning in the modern world undergoing processes of both the information revolution and globalization. As our contributors show, the entire globalized society that has involved in the World Wide Web can be regarded, from a certain point of view, as a giant reputation factoryimparting some characteristics or othersnot only to individuals but also to corporations, various communities and whole countries. In these conditions, ignoring the reputation factor becomes a major factor of demodernization, which our contributors, while analyzing the current situation in Russia, also discuss.

WHOM TO BELIEVE

Gloria Origgi. Through Others’ Eyes. Towards an Epistemology of Reputation (“Un certain regard. Pour uneépistémologie de la reputation”). In: Communications, No. 93, 2013

We monitor the informational environment and catch reputational clues, gather signals from our informants and develop our attitudes of trust in the context. The author presents the project of an epistemology of reputation as a way of using social configurations to acquire information. She reviews the definitions of reputation that exist in social sciences, stresses the importance of relational/social dimension of reputation as a property of entities and puts forward a definition suitable for epistemology. She then sketches some social configurations that allow us to extract reputational information and some typical heuristics we use to navigate through the social information around us.

Mark Eisenegger. Trust and Reputation in the Age of Globalization (Translation of a chapter from the book Reputation Capital. Building and Maintaining Trust in the 21st Century. Joachim Klewes, Robert Wreschniok (Eds.). Springer, 2009)

The reputation of all agents in our society invariably consists of three components. First, their own competence and associated successes must be continuously demonstrated (functional reputation). Second, agents must adhere to social norms and values in a responsible way (social reputation). And third, every agent relies on an emotionally attractive profile to separate him distinctively from his competitors (expressive reputation). On the basis of this three-dimensional reputation approach, it is examined how the logic of reputation constitution has changed in the age of globalization. Among other things, it becomes evident that the greatest reputation risks lurk in the sector of social reputation. One of the rules of successful reputation management described in this paper is consequently that credible social commitment builds on actions and not on words.

Kirill Velikanov. An abstract of the book Reputation Capital. Building and Maintaining Trust in the 21st Century. Joachim Klewes, Robert Wreschniok (Eds.). Springer, 2009

This volume offers unique new strategies and management rules for investing in, earning and keeping reputation capital safe in today’s unpredictable and complex markets. It presents enlightening insights from a wide variety of key industries, including the automotive, chemical, finance, food, luxury, energy and pharmaceutical sectors. A team of international authors opens a controversial debate on the positive and negative aspects of reputation in the 21st century, and challenges conventional approaches to reputation management, for example with regard to CEO positioning, CSR, corporate communications or social media.Reputation Capital is a practical guidebook with a firm foundation in the latest research from leading universities around the world; an indispensable tool for people in charge when it comes to managing reputation.

Vadim Mikhailin. On the Situatedness of Reputations: The Return of Odysseus

The article is an attempt to single out the mode of coding communication situations which calls for work on “reputation” in the original Latin sense of the word — that is, on clarifying what one person or another is within a given specific context. The material for the study is provided by a series of episodes from Homer’sOdyssey — episodes which belong to different levels and have different nature, yet which are united by a common principle: the main character finds himself in a situation where not only his social capital but also the matrices within which it should be calculated are not apparent to those around him.

Pierre-Marie Chauvin. The Sociology of Reputations (“La sociologie des réputations”). In:Communications, No. 93, 2013

The sociology of reputations is a dynamic but weakly structured field of research. This article participates in the organization of this field by proposing a sociological definition of reputation and by identifying five big cross-sectional issues in the literature: the link between reputation and reality (the theory of reputation-reflect as a critical target); the control of one’s reputation by the reputed actor; the traditional dichotomy between “good” and “bad” reputation and its validity; the spaces and temporalities of reputations; and, finally, the different reputed “entities” and their possible relations.

DEW FROM THE SKY

Alexander Rubtsov. Reputation as the “Right to Rule”

The article examines the problem of the reputation of government as the foundation of its legitimacy. The author shows that contemporary Russian government clearly ignores this factor, having chosen “Do what you want, come what may” as its principle.

Vitaly Leibin. Governability versus Reputations

Based on Russia’s recent history and contemporary situation, the article shows how and why the sphere of bureaucratic (regular) administration is expanding by reducing political variety — most of all, by destroying or ignoring moral and professional reputations. Reputations still remaining in subcultures, corporations and individual regions practically have no chance for nationwide prestige and authority. An attempt is made to answer the question of why it is that fringe politicians from different political camps and their largely controversial proposals are now to be heard most loudlyrather than the voices of intellectuals.

Is the Reputation of the“Regents of Our Dreams”Convertible into Political Prestige?

According to a survey conducted by the Public Opinion Foundation, an overwhelming majority of Russians consider the participation of cultural figures in the discussion of social and political problems to be natural and necessary. However, every fourth respondent would not like to see publicly respected cultural figures among State Duma deputies. A cautious inference can be made from this survey: they are by no means protected against a serious injury to their reputations even in their professional spheres.

INFLUENCE NETWORK

Irina Staf. E-Reputation. How and Why Network Reputation Should Be Managed. An abstract of two books:

Influence et réputation sur Internet. Communautés, crises et stratégies. 2013; E. Fillias, A. Villeneuve. E-réputation. Stratégies d’influence sur Internet. Paris, 2013

The abstract deals with the concept of e-reputation, which has emerged with the development of the Internet for denoting new possibilities for network interaction and influence. Problems of network communities and of waging information wars and overcoming reputation crises are examined.

Kirill Velikanov. A Citizen in the Online Political Space

The article makes an attempt to formulate the main requirements for the system management of creation and support of the online political reputation of citizens, as well as experts and technical specialists in a way that would make them gradually become increasingly based on direct knowledge and on the “objective reputation characteristics” of carriers of that knowledge. Today the state is obliged to ensure the integrity of the nationwide popular vote; to achieve this, it would suffice tomonitor the reality and uniqueness of each citizen’s vote. Tomorrow the state will have to ensure to the same extent the integrity of nationwide discussions, having developed and deployed a system assigning to citizens a “reputation based on their actual merits.” The existence and public recognition of such flexible “meritocratic reputation hierarchies” is the main condition ensuring that direct democracy will not degenerate into ochlocracy.

Yevgenia Kordonskaya. Markers in Social Networks

The article focuses on the specific features of interaction of young people in social networks, using the example of the Russian social network VKontakte. In connection with this age group, the author singles out markers used in forming an opinion about a social network participant on the basis of information contained on his page.

CALCULATING THE INCALCULABLE

Boris Zhukov. The Institution of a Good Name

At the time of its birth, science in the strict sense of the word — European natural science of the modern times — tried to get away from the power of names, having proclaimed that it is only facts that matter regardless of who discovered them. Today, however, the personal reputation of a scientist (and its derivatives such as the reputation of a scientific school, research area or institution) plays a great role both in science itself and in its relations with society. Yet the institution of reputation is by its nature “unscientific,” being inconsistent with any criteria of objectivity and verifiability. This irremovable in-depth contradiction brings about various collisions that are sometimes resolved in a highly dramatic way.

Alexander Rubtsov. Science and Power or, the Mad Calculating Machine

Underlying the latest reorganization of Russian science and higher education is the idea of ranking institutions by their efficiency levels. The evaluation is based on the statistics of publications and their citations,consideration of impact factors, etc., even though in a number of countries which formerly practiced this method, the use of bibliometry for most of the sciences and the entire sphere of the humanities isprohibited by lawas “deforming the scientific landscape.”At the same time, the scientific community has clearly felt a sharp, avalanche-like growth in the paper document flow related to the need to submit numerous plans, reports and reference materials. This excessive and incompetent regulation is at variance with the post-nonclassical model of science positioning which has developed in advanced countries and which is implemented through civil society institutions rather than through the authorities. Otherwise, which seems to be the prospect for Russia, professional dignity and notions of reputation, ethics and guild honor will leave the sphere of science.

Pyotr Safronov. Managing Relations: Educational Policy in the Language of Management

The article examines the understanding of reputation underlying modern educational policy. It is argued that educational management gravitates towards formal anonymized representation of reputation depending on the informational “visibility” of individual scientists and institutions. This causes damage to the integrity of the academic community and creates inequality inside it. In this situation, the content of reputation gives place to the development of reputation infrastructure, that is, a set of mechanisms ensuring the positive image of a university and its subdivisions for various groups of consumers, including university intellectuals themselves. In conclusion, the possibilities of an approach which can overcome one-sidedly interpreted managerialism are examined.

Alexander Kyrlezhev. Is It Possible to Speak about the Reputation of the Church?

The author sees a problem in the fact that the Church is something ever-present, recognizable and thus “comprehensible” as a public actor and, at the same time, something “different,” stepping outside the boundaries of public space where reputation matters.

Alexander Panchenko. Bloody Ethnography: The Legend of Ritual Murder and the Persecution of Religious Minorities

The article focuses on the formation of a “negative reputation” with respect to individuals and groups who are not regarded as “one’s own” for some reason. The author tells about how this happens with specific reference to accusations of ritual murders made against Jews and various “sectarians.” In the author’s opinion, the legend of ritual murder happens to be a highly resilient “cultural virus” accompanying the construction of “negative reputations” in the religious sphere. It is precisely this sphere which, as a result, turns out to concentrate in itself the most “harmful” and “vicious” forms and methods of social stigmatization which, in their turn, lead to real, not imaginary, sufferings, blood and violence.

ORIENTAL HUES

Taras Ivchenko. The Face and Many-Facedness of Chinese Culture

The article deals with the category of “face” in China: why losing it is horrible, whether it can be restored and what has to be sacrificed for its sake.The author examines the question of what Western culture has changed in the “Chinese face.”

Alexander Meshcheryakov. The Autobiography of Fukuzawa Yukichi as a Reputation Resource

The article centers on the eminent Japanese cultural figure who wrote his autobiography, the first one in Japan’s history, at the end of the 19th century. Its purpose was to create and affirm the image, new one for Japan, of a destroyer of authorities and cultural foundations. In his autobiography, Fukuzawa Yukichi lays emphasis on his deviant behavior and, naturally, arrives at the conclusion that this is what “real man” should be.

THE LAND OF OZ

Andrei Olkhovatov. The Allies’ Entry into Paris in 1814, As Seen through the Eyes of Contemporaries

The article focuses on the entry of Russian troops as part of the international coalition into Paris in 1814. In describing the evidence left by eyewitnesses of this event, one of the major events of the 19th century, the author lays emphasis on how ordinary people perceived it rather than on the course of military actions or diplomatic struggle. The author gives a fascinating account of the events that led to the emergence of several Parises on the Russian map and the appearance of bistros in France, as well as the memories that Alexander I’s troops left behind in Europe.

Darya Maryanina. The Floor Is Given to Memory

The journal Otechestvennye Zapiski continues to publish essays by participants in the 14th annual all-Russia competition of historical research papers by senior high school students “Man in History: Russia, 20th Century,” conducted by the International Historical Education, Charitable and Human Rights Society “Memorial.” The author, an 11th form student of High School No. 3 at the settlement of Orlovsky, Rostov-on-Don Oblast, tells the story of her grandfather’s sister, who was driven to Germany during the war, of the conditions in which she had to work and of what she had to live through.

REVIEWS

Alexander Polunov. A review of the book: O. D. Volkogonova. Konstantin Leontiev. Moscow, 2013

Vasily Kostyrko. Faith and Knowledge in a Post-Secular World. A review of the books:

Karen Armstrong. Bitva za Boga. Istoriya fundamentalizma [The Battle for God: A History of Fundamentalism]. Moscow, 2013

M. N. Epshtein. Religiya posle ateizma. Noviye vozmozhnosti teologii [Religion after Atheism: New Possibilities of Theology]. Moscow, 2013

D. N. Voropayev. Religioznyi netraditsionalizm [Religious Nonconventionalism]. Orenburg, 2013

Artur Pikok. Evolyutsiya — tainyi drug very [Arthur Peacocke. Evolution: The Disguised Friend of Faith?]. Moscow, 2013