From amateurism to science: peculiarities of the Ural local historians and professional scholars'' Communication

The paper is devoted to the processes of communication between the Ural local historians and professional academics. Different motivation of local historians contributed to diverse academic contacts. Communication played an important role in forming local historians' personalities and value orientations. The author analyses both the system of internal communications between local historians and their relationships with professional scholars. The paper draws attention to the interaction of two types of knowledge: socially oriented knowledge, which is connected with the activities of local historians, and academic one, represented by professional scholars. The complexity of relationships between the two types of knowledge manifests itself in the pursuit of local amateur historians to replicate professional researchers' experience. Due to the absence of professional scholars in province, local historians initiated communication practices with academics. The author states that communicative platforms, channels and practices of provincial local history community helped to develop norms and values of historical profession. Provincial historians were involved in communicative networks, allowing continuous exchange of information, monitoring the state of historical studies and getting feedback concerning their researches. Formal and informal communication was a way of connecting local historians to the professional community. Local historians had an opportunity to involve in research activities due to reviews and citing. However, a well-defined border separating the professional community of historians and local historians was preserved.