ABSTRACT
The problem of inequalities in the structures and practices of knowledge production and dissemination has become quite actual but still not attaining the amount of attention corresponding to its importance, especially in the context of unprecedented transformations occurring in the last few decades in Eastern and South-eastern Europe. These issues belong to the domain of the (geo-)politics of knowledge production currently in the background compared to the domains of governance and policies of knowledge production and dissemination, which dominate the field. Therefore, the main aim of this chapter is to contribute to the conceptual systematization of the approaches available to the studies of the inequalities of the systems of knowledge production and distribution in Eastern Europe by firstly systematizing the existing conceptual apparatuses used in research on the disparities of knowledge production systems through the three waves of scholarship: centre-periphery, academic dependency, and decolonial thought. In the concluding remarks, we put these conceptual basics into the context of current policy and governance mechanisms developed under globalization and cognitive capitalism while suggesting some directions for the empowerment of knowledge production in the peripheries to be acquired by the future generations of scholars in the postsocialist region.
