The Gift and Open Science
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Abstract
This article illustrates how social structures and behaviours of scientists in the societal sub-system of open science resemble patterns analysed in The Gift, an essay written by Marcel Mauss nearly 100 years ago. The presented analysis goes beyond existing interpretations of gift-giving in science. The latter has mainly focussed on the exchange of knowledge and citations. I argue that The Gift explains also identity, competition, co-opetition, rituals and punishment. Mauss's Gift is seen as a complementary model to existing economic and sociological approaches regularly used to analyse structures and behaviours in open science. By accentuating such an anthropological approach, I conclude that the Gift provides explanations for the stability and the expansion of the open science community.
Contributor Notes
Henrik Egbert is Professor of Economics at Anhalt University of Applied Sciences. He is a researcher in micro-economics, new institutional economics, and economic anthropology. He has published books and articles on interdisciplinary topics, such as international migration, informal trade, social networks and entrepreneurship. E-mail: henrik.egbert@hs-anhalt.de