Gerő, M. (2025). Institutional Disruptions, as a Tool for Restricting Academic Freedom. Political Anthropological Research on International Social Sciences (PARISS) (published online ahead of print 2025). https://doi.org/10.1163/25903276-bja10080

Abstract

Restrictions on academic freedom are usually understood as limitations on the work of individual researchers and university professors. I argue that, in the Hungarian case, the government’s main tool for restricting academic freedom is the creation of an environment in which institutions face constant change, and existential threat at the institutional level, rather than direct targeting of individual researchers. This repertoire includes centralization, financial uncertainty, the establishment of parallel institutions, and the harassment of individuals and organizations, all of which create an atmosphere of continuous crisis and insecurity. Combined with low salaries, these conditions lead individuals to leave the country or academia, or to engage in self-exploiting practices to make ends meet, or advance their career. On the institutional level, they encourage an emphasis on professional sociology – in Michael Burawoy’s terms – at the expense of other forms of sociology that are essential for maintaining the popular legitimacy of these institutions.