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Transnational mobility and the spaces of knowledge production: a comparison of different academic fields
Department of Geography, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany
Abstract. Transnational movements of academics shape the production and dissemination of knowledge and thus the geographies of contemporary knowledge economies. In this paper, I investigate the complex relationship between knowledge, mobility and space by examining three key aspects of academic mobility to Germany in the period 1981 to 2000: first, global patterns of interaction, second, motivations to work in Germany for a limited period of time and, third, resulting publications and collaborations. The study is based on two sets of statistical data and a postal survey involving about 1200 respondents from 90 countries. I argue that transnational academic mobility and collaboration is not only shaped by political, socio-economic, cultural, intellectual and individual circumstances but also by varying geographies of different research practices that help to explain field-specific cultures of academic mobility and collaboration. Drawing upon an actor-network based understanding of both the natural and technical sciences and the arts and humanities, a three-dimensional matrix is developed that conceptualises varying spatial relations of scientific practice and interaction in different fields and at different stages of knowledge production.
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Citation: Jöns, H.: Transnational mobility and the spaces of knowledge production: a comparison of different academic fields, Soc. Geogr. Discuss., 3, 79-119, 2007. Bibtex EndNote Reference Manager
