The Potential of Hermeneutics in Institutional Studies

The paper hypothesizes that the potential of “institutional research”, as a scientific field, best meets the conditions of the anthropological transition, enhanced by sociotechnical transformations, and this potential increases with the use of hermeneutical methods. These methods do not present an alternative to the Euro-Atlantic tradition of positivism, but arise as a generalization of the experience of the Russian school of philosophy of science and enrich the tools of science due to the possibilities of reification of scientific intuition in institutional studies. Based on the results of an explanatory study of the narratives of institutional trust in economic contexts, the postulate is formulated: trust is a condition for the viability of the socio-economic system. The search hermeneutical study of relations, semantic proximity of concepts related to the concept of “civilization” in the Russian-speaking context reveals the maximum of the measured values for “trust”. In addition, the lexical complex “МИР” is revealed in the role of the “hidden third” in the confrontation between “Western” and “Russian” civilizations. The representations stored in this complex reflect its ability to generate and maintain trust. The disclosure of its potential is seen as a promising task for institutional researchers.