Academic and policy discourse has idealised academic mobility despite studies showing that it can have adverse effects on individuals ‘experiences and contribute towards exacerbating existing inequalities. Contrary to this idealisation, this paper shows how that long term (more than a year) academic mobility at the early career paths of STEM researchers entails challenges, frictions and emotional tensions as part of the decision making irrespective if they decide to move or remain within their home country. The concept of stickiness is used highlight the often-understated tensions of academic career (im)mobilities. Moreover, it emphasises the complexity, the affective considerations and the tensions in how (im)mobilities are determined and experienced in early career researchers’ accounts and allows investigating the intersection and co-construction of individual and contextual considerations in academic mobilities and careers. This paper is based on a qualitative analysis of 15 in-depth interviews with a subsample of survey respondents, as part of a mixed methods study of Greek researchers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM). It thus focuses on a largely underexamined population and context, Greek STEM early career researchers and compares individuals with international mobility experience and those who remained in Greece during their early career.
Tzanakou, Charikleia
Oxford Brookes Business School
Year of publication: 2020Date of RADAR deposit: 2020-08-06