Peter the Great and interdisciplinary synthesis

Abstract

This paper examines the specifics of interdisciplinary synthesis in modern social sciences. The author argues that currently economists do not “intervene” on to the “territory” of adjacent social sciences but rather export concepts from their disciplines into economics. The article reveals the reasons for the decline in the interest of social scientists in “grand theories” and highlights the factors that conditioned the rise of the so-called quantitative turn in social sciences. The author demonstrates the correlation between the empirical turn in social sciences and the promotion of interdisciplinarity. The analysis allows to state that the main driver enhancing the dialogue between representatives of various scientific fields is the growing unity of the analytical toolkit used by scholars. As a result, more and more researchers identify themselves through the analytical methods they use. Drawing on the papers prepared by the participants of the conference “Paradoxes of Peter the Great’s reforms: lessons for the economy of modern Russia”, held at the Faculty of Economics of Lomonosov Moscow State University on September 21, 2022 and formed this issue of Lomonosov Economics Journal, the author examines the manifestations of interdisciplinary approach in Russian social sciences. It has been identified that, unlike their international colleagues, Russian social scientists are united not so much by common analytical toolkit, but by the desire to fit their research into a broad theoretical framework, which over the past decades is represented by diverse types of institutionalism