This workshop, organized by CSH researchers Márcia Ferreira and Fariba Karimi, will take place at the Complexity Science Hub on June 16 and 17.
Abstract:
Scientific human capital mobility is crucial for understanding how ideas and knowledge circulate in an increasingly globalized academic environment. This phenomenon has mainly been studied in terms of the movement of researchers between geographical locations. Additionally, mobility can be defined as topical mobility (i.e., changes in individuals’ research interests) and institutional mobility (i.e., affiliation changes at the institutional and departmental levels).
When researchers move to new institutions, they bring new ideas and perspectives that are recombined with those of their peers. Co-located interactions are essential for the effective transfer of tacit knowledge, which is difficult to convey via communication channels such as emails or books. Thus, scientific knowledge and interactive learning are intrinsically tied to researchers’ mobility and collaboration across and within institutions.
Little is known about how underrepresented groups or researchers from more peripheric countries relocate in this context. The career opportunities available to these groups are also constrained by mutable characteristics such as the individual’s productivity, reputation, funding, competence, and performance metrics. But a scientist’s career trajectory is not entirely dependent on these characteristics. They are also constrained by immutable and more fundamental social factors, such as demographics.
This workshop aims to critically examine and discuss scientific careers considering these more fundamental social processes.
The two-day workshop will study and discuss gendered and underrepresented career trajectories and typical/atypical mobility patterns across a variety of dimensions. We will discuss related advances in bibliometric databases and how bibliographic enhancements, additional data sources, and complex system approaches might assist decision-makers in promoting a more inclusive science. We will reflect on the implications of these processes for the global research landscape and our approach to scientific research priorities.
Speakers:
Roberta Sinatra
Nicolas Robinson Garcia
Vincent Larivière
Rodrigo Costas
Cassidy Sugimoto
Fariba Karimi