Social Geography Discussions www.soc-geogr-discuss.net 1816-1499 1816-1502 3 1 2007 10.5194/sgd-3-79-2007 http://www.soc-geogr-discuss.net/3/79/2007/ http://www.soc-geogr-discuss.net/3/79/2007/sgd-3-79-2007.html http://www.soc-geogr-discuss.net/3/79/2007/sgd-3-79-2007.pdf 79 119 2007-02-12 Transnational mobility and the spaces of knowledge production: a comparison of different academic fields H. Jöns heike.joens@geog.uni-heidelberg.de Department of Geography, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany 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. Ackers, L.: Moving People and Knowledge: Scientific Mobility in European Union, International Migration, 43, 5, 99–131, 2005. Ackers, H. L. and Gill, B.: Attracting and Retaining Early Career Researchers in English Higher Education Institutions, Innovation: The European Journal of Social Science Research, 18, 3, 277–299, 2005. Altbach, P. G.: The New Internationalism: Foreign Students and Scholars, Studies in Higher Education, 14, 2, 125–136, 1989. Baláz, V. and Williams, A.: Been There Done That: International Student Migration and Human Capital Transfers from the UK to Slovakia, Population, Place and Space, 10, 3, 217–237, 2004. Barnett, G. A. and Wu, R. Y.: The International Student Exchange Network: 1970 and 1989, Higher Education, 30, 353–368, 1995. Barnett, R. and Phipps, A.: Academic Travel: Modes and Directions, The Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies, 27, 3, 3–16, 2005. Becher, T.: Academic Tribes and Territories: Intellectual Enquiry and the Cultures of Disciplines, Open University Press, Milton Keynes, 1989. Bingham, N. and Thrift, N.: Some New Instructions for Travellers: The Geography of Bruno Latour and Michel Serres, in: Thinking Space, edited by: Crang, M. and Thrift, N., Routledge, London, pp 281–301, 2000. Blumenthal, P., Goodwin, C. D., Smith, A., and Teichler, U. (Eds.): Academic Mobility in a Changing World: Regional and Global Trends, Higher Education Policy 29, Jessica Kingsley Publishers, London, 1996. Budke, A.: Wahrnehmungs- und Handlungsmuster im Kulturkontakt: Studien über Austauschstudenten in wechselnden Kontexten, Osnabrücker Studien zur Geographie 25, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen, 2003. Button, K., Brown, P., Fischer, M., Maggi, R., Ouwersloot, H., Rammer, C., Rietveld, P., and Salomon, I.: Academic Links and Communications, Avebury, Aldershot, 1993. Crawford, E., Shinn, T. and Sörlin, S. (Eds.): Denationalizing Science: The Contexts of International Scientific Practice, Kluwer Academic Publications, Dordrecht, 1993. Department of Trade and Industry: Knowledge Migrants: The Motivations and Experiences of Professionals in the UK on Work Permits, Department of Trade and Industry, London, 2002. Ekmann, R. and Quandt, R. (Eds.): Technology and Scholarly Communication, University of California Press, Berkeley, CA, 1999. Findlay, A.: Skilled Transients: The Invisible Phenomenon, in: Cambridge Survey of World Migration, edited by: Cohen, R., Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 515–522, 1996. Goodwin, C. D.: Academic Mobility in a Changing World: Concluding Reflections on the Issues at Stakes, in: Academic Mobility in a Changing World: Regional and Global Trends, edited by: Blumenthal, P., Goodwin, C. D., Smith, A., and Teichler, U., Higher Education Policy 29, Jessica Kingsley Publishers, London, pp 359–368, 1996. Gregory, D.: The Geographical Discourse of Modernity, in: Explorations in Critical Geography, edited by: Gregory, D., Hettner-Lecture 1997, Department of Geography, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, pp 45–67, 1998. Gregory, D.: Cultures of Travel and Spatial Formations of Knowledge, Erdkunde, 54, 4, 297–319, 2000. Haraway, D.: Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective, in: The Science Studies Reader, edited by: Biagioli, M., Routledge, London, pp 172–188, [1988]1999. Harvey, D.: Space as a Key Word, in: Spaces of Neoliberalization: Towards a Theory of Uneven Geographical Development, edited by: Harvey, D., Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart, pp 93–115, 2005. Heffernan, M. J.: A State Scholarship: The Political Geography of French International Science during the Nineteenth Century, Transactions, Institute of British-Geographers, 19, 1, 21–45, 1994. Iredale, R.: The Migration of Professionals: Theories and Typologies, International Migration, 39, 5, 7–26, 2001. Iredale, R. and Appleyard, R.: International Migration of the Highly Skilled: An Introduction, International Migration, 39, 5, 3–6, 2001. Jallade, J. P.: Editorial, Special Issue on Student Mobility, European Journal of Education, 31, 2, 131–132, 1996. Jansen, C.: Exzellenz weltweit: Die Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung zwischen Wissenschaftsförderung und auswärtiger Kulturpolitik, DuMont, Köln, 2004. Jalowiecki, B. and Gorzelak, G. J.: Brain Drain, Brain Gain and Mobility: Theories and Prospective Methods, Higher Education in Europe, 29, 3, 299–308, 2004. Jöns, H.: Internationalität durch ausländische Gastwissenschaftler, in: Nationalatlas Bundesrepublik Deutschland: Bildung und Kultur, edited by: Institut für Länderkunde, Spektrum Akademischer Verlag, Heidelberg, pp 84–85, 2002. Jöns, H. Grenzüberschreitende Mobilität und Kooperation in den Wissenschaften: Deutschlandaufenthalte US-amerikanischer Humboldt-Forschungspreisträger aus einer erweiterten Akteursnetzwerkperspektive, Heidelberger Geographische Arbeiten 116, Selbstverlag des Geographischen Instituts der Universität Heidelberg, Heidelberg, 2003a. Jöns, H.: Geographies of International Scientific Exchange in their Political Context: The Case of Visiting Scholars to Germany in the Second Half of the 20th Century, in: Frontiers of Geography, edited by: Nemes Nagy, J. and Jakobi, Á., Department of Regional Geography, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, pp 227–247, 2003b. Jöns, H.: Academic Mobility and Collaboration Across the Atlantic: Experiences in the Humanities and the Social Sciences, in: What Factors Impact the Internationalization of Scholarship in the Humanities and Social Sciences?, edited by: Humboldt Foundation, Arbeits- und Diskussionspapiere 3, Humboldt Foundation, Bonn, pp 7–24, 2005. Jöns, H.: Dynamic Hybrids and the Geographies of Technoscience: Discussing Conceptual Resources Beyond the Human/Non-Human Binary, Social and Cultural Geography, 7, 4, 559–580, 2006. Jöns, H. and Meusburger, P.: Internationaler Wissenschaftsaustausch, in: Nationalatlas Bundesrepublik Deutschland: Deutschland in der Welt, edited by: Institut für Länderkunde, Spektrum Akademischer Verlag, Heidelberg, pp 116–119, 2005. King, R.: Towards a New Map of European Migration, International Journal of Population Geography, 8, 2, 89–106, 2002. King, R., and Ruiz-Gelices, E.: International Student Migration and the European Year Abroad: Effects on European Identity and Subsequent Migration Behaviour, International Journal of Population Geography, 9, 3, 229–252, 2003. Koser, K. and Salt, J.: The Geography of Highly Skilled International Migration, International Journal of Population Geography, 3, 285–303, 1997. Kuhn, T.: The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1962. Laudel, G.: Migration Currents Among the Scientific Elite, Minerva, 43, 377–395, 2005. Latour, B.: Science in Action: How to Follow Scientists and Engineers Through Society, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1987. Latour, B.: "One More Turn after the Social Turn....", in: The Social Dimensions of Science, edited by: McMullin, E., University of Notre Dame Press, Notre Dame, pp 272–292, 1992. Latour, B.: On Actor-Network Theory: A Few Clarifications, Soziale Welt, 47, 369–381, 1996. Latour, B.: Pandora's Hope: Essays on the Reality of Science Studies, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1999. Latour, B.: Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor-Network-Theory, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2005. Law, J. and Hassard, J. (Eds.): Actor Network Theory and After, Blackwell, Oxford, 1999. Li, F. L. N., Findlay, A. M., Jowett, A. J., and Skeldon, R.: Migrating to Learn and Learning to Migrate: A Study of the Experiences and Intentions of International Student Migrants, International Journal of Population Geography, 2, 51–67, 1996. Livingstone, D. N.: The Spaces of Knowledge: Contributions Towards a Historical Geography of Science, Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 13, 5–34, 1995. Livingstone, D. N.: Making Space for Science, Erdkunde, 54, 4, 285–296, 2000. Livingstone, D. N. (Ed.): Science, Space and Hermeneutics: Hettner-Lecture 2001, Department of Geography, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, 2002a. Livingstone, D. N.: Knowledge, Space and the Geographies of Science, in: Science, Space and Hermeneutics: Hettner-Lecture 2001, edited by: Livingstone, D. N., Department of Geography, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, pp 7–40, 2002b. Livingstone, D. N.: Putting Science in its Place: Geographies of Scientific Knowledge, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2003. Meusburger, P.: The Spatial Concentration of Knowledge: Some Theoretical Considerations, Erdkunde, 54, 4, 352–364, 2000. Martin-Rovet, D.: Opportunities for Outstanding Young Scientists in Europe to Create an Independent Research Team, European Science Foundation, Strasbourg, 2003. Morano-Foadi, S.: Scientific Mobility, Career Progression, and Excellence in the European Research Area, International Migration, 43, 5, 133–162, 2005. Naylor, S.: Historical Geographies of Science: Places, Contexts, Cartographies: Special Issue on the Historical Geographies of Science, British Journal for the History of Science, 1–12, 2005. Ophir, A. and Shapin, S.: The Place of Knowledge: A Methodological Survey, Science in Context, 4, 1, 3–21, 1991. Pethe, H.: International Migration hoch qualifizierter Arbeitskräfte: Die Greencard-Regelung in Deutschland, Deutscher Universitäts-Verlag, Wiesbaden, 2006. Salt, J.: International Movements of the Highly Skilled, OECD Working Papers 91, OECD, Paris, 1997. Shapin, S.: Here and Everywhere: Sociology of Scientific Knowledge, Annual Review of Sociology, 21, 289–321, 1995. Smith, C. and Agar, J. (Eds.): Making Space for Science: Territorial Themes in the Shaping of Knowledge, MacMillan, Basingstoke, 1998. Teichler, U.: Research on Academic Mobility and International Cooperation in Higher Education: An Agenda for the Future, in: Academic Mobility in a Changing World: Regional and Global Trends, edited by: Blumenthal, P., Goodwin, C. D., Smith, A., and Teichler, U., Higher Education Policy 29, Jessica Kingsley Publishers, London, pp 338–358, 1996. Teichler, U. (Ed.): ERASMUS in the SOCRATES Programme: Findings of an Evaluation Study, ACA Papers on International Cooperation in Education, Lemmens, Bonn, 2002. OECD (Ed.): Internationalisation of Higher Education, OECD Documents, Centre for Educational Research and Innovation, OECD, Paris, 1996. OECD (Ed.): Internationalisation and Trade in Higher Education: Opportunities and Challenges, Centre for Educational Research and Innovation, OECD, Paris, 2004. Van de Sande, D., Ackers, H. L., and Gill, B.: Impact Assessment of the Marie Curie Fellowships under the 4th and 5th Framework Programmes of Research and Technological Development of the EU (1994–2002), European Commission, Brussels, 2005. Wagner, C. S.: Six Case Studies of International Collaboration in Science, Scientometrics, 62, 1, 3–26, 2005. Wagner, C. S. and Leydesdorff, L.: Mapping the Network of Global Science: Comparing International Co-authorships from 1990 to 2000; International Journal of Technology and Globalization, 1, 2, 185–208, 2005a. Wagner, C. S. and Leydesdorff, L.: Network Structure, Self-Organization, and the Growth of International Collaboration in Science, Research Policy, 34, 10, 1608–1618, 2005b. Weingart, P.: Wissenschaft und Forschung, in: Handwörterbuch zur Gesellschaft Deutschlands, edited by: Schäfers, B. and Zapf, W., Leske & Budrich, Opladen, pp 720–731, 1998. Werlen, B.: Society, Action and Space: An Alternative Human Geography, Routledge, New York, 1993. Werlen, B.: Sozialgeographie, UTB für Wissenschaft, Haupt, Bern, 2000. Windham, D.M.: Overview and Main Conclusions of the Seminar, in: Internationalisation of Higher Education, edited by: OECD, OECD Documents, OECD, Paris, pp 7–29, 1996.