Intellectual Environment as an Object for Research: Factors of Development and Points of Vulnerability

The article reveals the concept of intellectual environment as a community of people aimed at creating an intellectual and creative product and connected by a certain communication field. This community is considered as a cumulative subject of an innovative product, as a part of the public space, responsible for production, exchange, distribution and reproduction of intellectual resources. The article provides an overview of existing approaches and concepts used to study this phenomenon, such as «epistemic community,» «intellectual milieu,» «knowledge society,» «information society,» «knowledge economy,» «free-floating intelligentsia», «human capital», «intellectual capital», etc. The basic factors contributing to the effective development of the intellectual environment are considered: socio-political, economic, communicative, socio-cultural ones. Particular attention is paid to the specifics of the Russian tradition of the intellectual environment formation, revealing the discontinuous and non-linear type of its evolution both in the relation to the global intellectual environment and in relation to its own intellectual roots and tradition. The specific dual nature of the intellectual field of Russia, associated with the peculiarities of its modernization process, is emphasized. In conclusion, the idea about two possible vectors for the development of the global intellectual environment: segmental and integrative is expressed as an important dilemma of modern international politics.