Paper short abstract:

This contribution is built on a case study investigating SSH researchers valuing their own research and publication output in everyday practice. Drawing on valuation studies, the interplay of different quality notions is analyzed and discussed in relation to the accumulation of epistemic capital.

Paper long abstract:

Drawing on STS research conceptualizing valuation as a situated practice (Heuts & Mol, 2013; Dussauge et al., 2015; Helgesson, 2016; Waibel et al., 2021) this contribution asks how SSH researchers are valuing the quality of their own work along multiple dimensions, e.g. in relation to the multiplicity of academic careers (Gläser & Laudel, 2015; Laudel & Bielick, 2018, 2019). Central questions of the panel are addressed from the perspective of researchers making sense of their own research and its outcomes in everyday practice.

Presenting results from a case study based on 47 interviews with researchers in history, political science and area studies, I will discuss how SSH researchers (e)valuate different research and publication practices, focusing on the interplay of epistemic values, reputation building and addressing institutional expectations, needs and requirements. Bringing afore a plethora of valuation practices and associated quality notions, I will pay special attention to the use of new notions of research quality, e.g. openness, interdisciplinarity, or societal impact, and their relation to traditional conceptualizations of quality in SSH research.

Consequently, these valuing practices are discussed in relation to accumulating epistemic capital (Fochler, 2016; Rushforth et al., 2019). Such accumulation processes are analyzed as two-folded in form: epistemic practice is characterized by a multiplicity of contingent qualities, while valorization is characterized by abstract, quantitative and universal forms of quality. While certain configurations of quality notions can enable or hinder the accumulation process, it depends on both dimensions, even though the abstract is re-shaping and transforming the concrete dimension.