Alexander Bikbov is sociologist, deputy director of the Centre for Contemporary Philosophy and Social Sciences at Moscow State University, associate fellow of the Maurice Halbwachs research Centre (Paris), editor of interdisciplinary review Logos (Moscow), and non-fiction book review Pushkin (Moscow). His current research projects are focused on the perception of social hierarchies in modern societies (Russia, France, Italy) and on politics of knowledge in social sciences and education. His latest publications include: “Fragliche Autonomie. Zur Lage der Soziologie im heutigen Russland” (2005), “Sotsialnie neravenstva i spravedlivost: realnost voobrazhaemogo” (2007); “Der Begriff ‘Persönlichkeit’ als Indikator latenter Bürgerlichkeit im ‘spätsozialistischen’ Sowjetstaat” (2008), “Is sociology the same discipline in Russia and France? A brief political micro-history” (2009).