Résultat de la recherche
Early-career academics' cross-border mobilities: gender relationships within and beyond a transnational workplace
This dissertation examines academic transnational mobility through the experiences of early-career academics moving across borders to take up academic positions at universities abroad. In many countries, early-career transnational mobility has become a normative imperative, a necessary prerequisite to pursue an academic career and secure stable academic employment. At the same time, academic labor markets have become increasingly transnationalized and the number of temporary (and part-time) positions has risen considerably, generating increased competition for permanent positions and contributing to the casualization of academic employment. This dissertation adopts a gender-constructivist perspective, which maintains that, in their social practices and interactions, individuals (re)produce or transform gender representations that are structurally anchored in their wider social and institutional environment. This gender lens is implemented through a life-story approach and ego-centered social network analysis. This conceptual framework makes it possible to encompass the different domains of life and to investigate how these may interfere with academic transnational mobility. It also allows the ways in which academics’ decisions and practices are embedded in their social networks and wider social environments to be scrutinized. The dissertation draws on biographical and qualitative egocentric network interviews conducted with early-career academics from various national backgrounds at the University of Zurich in Switzerland and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in the United States. Research participants had obtained their PhD within the last ten years and were holding academic positions at various levels. For those in a relationship, semi-structured interviews were conducted with their partners. Drawing on and combining these different sets of qualitative data, several analyses were conducted, leading to four articles that constitute the core of the dissertation. The results presented in this dissertation bring new insights that challenge or nuance a number of ideas often taken for granted. First, by showing that academics moving abroad with their partners perform a diversity of gender configurations, this dissertation supports the idea that there is no straightforward relationship between couples’ gender arrangements and academic transnational mobility. Transnational mobility does not unequivocally undermine gender-(un)equal relationships between partners, nor does it necessarily favor (un)equal relationships either. This result contributes to recent scholarly discussions that question the overemphasis of the work-family approach to explain why female academics tend to be less transnationally mobile than their male counterparts, which makes it difficult to see that gender relationships are, indeed, progressively shifting. Second, by highlighting the negative effects that mobility may have on the people concerned, the results presented in this dissertation challenge the tendency in mobility studies to focus on the bright side of mobility and to indulge in a romanticized conception of mobility. Academics’ narratives reveal the many obstacles they face along their mobile trajectory, constraining them to complicated family arrangements involving sometimes the satellite mobility of people around them. The results emphasize that the price to pay as one pursues an academic career on the move may be perceived by the academics as overly expensive and with no guarantee of obtaining a stable academic position, contributing to a sense of mobility fatigue and precarity. Third, this dissertation questions the often-taken-for-granted idea that mobility abroad equates to the building of academic transnational networks. The analysis of the academics’ social networks shows that highly mobile academics did not develop more transnational academic networks than less mobile academics. Furthermore, the analysis reveals that transnational academic ties can be developed through other means than the mobility of the early-career academics, namely thanks to the mobility of higher-ranked academics who themselves travel across borders to give talks, lectures, or for their sabbatical. Finally, this dissertation shows that the transnational career moves of young scholars are processes embedded in social relationships in complex and sophisticated ways. In particular, the support that higher-ranked academics provide to early-career scholars varies along gender lines. These results help nuance the idea of academic meritocracy, which assumes that academic hires are based purely on the evaluation of individual merit and excellence. Résumé: Cette thèse s’intéresse à la mobilité académique transnationale à travers les expériences de chercheur.x.e.s académiques en début de carrière qui s’engagent dans des mobilités transnationales en vue d’occuper des postes académiques dans des institutions à l’étranger. Dans de nombreux pays, la mobilité transnationale en début de carrière est devenue un impératif normatif, un prérequis nécessaire à carrière académique et à l’obtention d’un emploi stable dans le milieu. Dans le même temps, le marché du travail académique est devenu de plus en plus transnationalisé et le nombre de postes temporaires (et à temps partiel) a considérablement augmenté, générant une concurrence accrue pour les postes permanents et contribuant à la précarisation des emplois universitaires. Cette thèse adopte une perspective constructiviste de genre, qui soutient que, dans leurs pratiques et interactions sociales, les individus (re)produisent ou transforment des représentations de genre qui sont structurellement ancrées dans leur environnement social et institutionnel plus large. Cette perspective de genre est mise en œuvre à travers une approche biographique et une analyse des réseaux sociaux égocentrés. Ce cadre conceptuel permet d’englober les différents domaines de la vie et d’étudier comment ceux-ci peuvent interférer avec la mobilité transnationale des jeunes chercheur.x.e.s. Il permet également d’examiner la manière dont les décisions et les pratiques de ces chercheur.x.e.s sont intégrées dans leurs réseaux sociaux et dans leur environnement social plus large. La thèse s’appuie sur des entretiens biographiques et des entretiens de réseau menés auprès de chercheur.x.e.s de diverses nationalités à l’Université de Zurich en Suisse et à l’Université de Californie Los Angeles (UCLA), aux États-Unis. Les participant.x.e.s avaient obtenu leur doctorat depuis dix ans au maximum et occupaient des postes académiques de différents niveaux. Lorsqu’iels étaient en couple, des entretiens semi-structurés ont été réalisés avec leurs partenaires. L’analyse combinée des différents ensembles de données qualitatives produites, a donné lieu à quatre articles qui constituent le cœur de cette thèse. Les résultats présentés apportent de nouvelles connaissances qui remettent en question ou nuancent un certain nombre d’idées souvent considérées comme allant de soi. Tout d’abord, en montrant que les chercheur.x.e.s qui se déplacent à l’étranger avec leur partenaire mettent en œuvre des configurations de genre diversifiées, cette thèse soutient l’idée qu’il n’existe pas de relation directe entre les arrangements genrés des couples et la mobilité académique transnationale. La mobilité transnationale n’affaiblit ni ne favorise nécessairement la mise en œuvre d’arrangements (in)égalitaires entre les partenaires. Ce résultat contribue aux récentes discussions académiques qui remettent en question l’importance excessive accordée parfois à la conciliation travail-famille pour expliquer que les femmes sont moins mobiles que les hommes, et qui ne paie pas assez attention au fait que les rapports sociaux de genre se modifient effectivement. Deuxièmement, en soulignant les effets négatifs de la mobilité sur les personnes concernées, les résultats présentés dans cette thèse remettent en question la tendance des études sur la mobilité à se focaliser sur ses aspects positifs et à en donner une image romantisée. Les récits des chercheur.x.e.s révèlent les nombreux obstacles auxquels iels sont confronté.x.e.s tout au long de leur trajectoire de mobilité, les contraignant à des arrangements familiaux compliqués impliquant parfois la mobilité satellite de personnes de leur entourage. Les résultats soulignent que le prix à payer pour poursuivre une carrière académique en mobilité peut être perçu par les chercheur.x.e.s comme démesuré, et ne garantissant en rien d’obtenir un poste stable. Les coûts répétés de la mobilité contribuent ainsi à l’émergence d’un sentiment de lassitude et de précarité. Troisièmement, cette thèse remet en question l’idée répandue selon laquelle la mobilité transnationale équivaudrait à la construction de réseaux académiques transnationaux. L’analyse des réseaux sociaux des chercheur.x.e.s montre que les très mobiles d’entre elleux n’ont pas développé davantage de relations académiques transnationales que les peu mobiles. En outre, l’analyse révèle qu’il est possible de développer des liens transnationaux par d’autres biais, notamment grâce à la mobilité de professeur.x.e.s et chercheur.x.e.s confirmé.x.e.s qui se déplacent elleux-mêmes transnationalement pour donner des conférences, des cours ou lors de leur congé sabbatique. Enfin, cette thèse montre que les mouvements de carrière transnationaux des jeunes chercheur.x.e.s sont des processus qui s’inscrivent dans les relations sociales de manière complexe et subtile. En particulier, le soutien que les professeur.x.e.s apportent aux jeunes chercheur.x.e.s varie selon le sexe de ces dernièr.x.e.s. Ces résultats contribuent à nuancer l’idée de méritocratie académique qui suppose que le recrutement des chercheur.x.e.s académiques repose uniquement sur l’évaluation de leur mérite individuel et de leur excellence.
Precarity among mobile academics: The price of a (successful) academic career?
In the early stages of their career, academics often move abroad for fixed-term positions, urged by the normative imperative to gain international experience and the need to accept academic opportunities where they arise. This paper examines the obstacles and challenges that three academics who engaged in a series of mobility episodes confronted and how they articulated competing demands from different domains of their lives. The analysis shows that the repetitive nature of mobility associated with fixed-term appointments is a significant aspect of academic precarity, and that academics believe that the repeated effort and sacrifice involved often do not lead to academic stability.
Locality and Transnational Mobility in the Early Stages of Academic Careers: The importance of Family and Professional Networks
La construction de l'invisibilité: Suppression de l'aide sociale dans le domaine de l'asile
Transnational mobility networks and academic social capital among early‐career academics: beyond common‐sense assumptions
Academic mobility is increasingly presented as indispensable for a successful academic career. This imperative is rooted in the assumption that mobility contributes to academic excellence because it allows academics to build transnational academic networks. Based on biographical interviews and an analysis of the mobility networks of early‐career academics at three universities (Zurich, Cambridge, and UCLA), we examine the composition of these academics’ networks at different times and discuss the role of transnational ties within them. We find that increased mobility does indeed result in more transnational networks, but it does not increase academic social capital. The additional transnational ties mainly consist of transnational kinship and friendship relations. Furthermore, the mobility of early‐career academics triggers various forms of mobility among their family members. Finally, early‐career academics can build transnational academic ties without necessarily becoming mobile themselves, thanks to the mobility of higher‐ranked academics.
Jeunes chercheurs académiques. La mobilité comme mode de vie."
Transnational mobility among early-career academics: gendered aspects of negotiations and arrangements within heterosexual couples
Today, transnational mobility is often presented as indispensable for a successful academic career. This institutionalisation of transnational mobility for young academics has important effects in (re)producing or transforming gender inequalities. Building on the results of a qualitative study conducted at three universities – Zurich (Switzerland), UCLA (USA), and Cambridge (UK) – this paper examines the mobility experiences of early-career academics and their partners and seeks to understand the mechanisms underlying mobility patterns, including the ways in which they are gendered. Drawing on three case studies, this paper focuses on the gendered negotiations and arrangements of mobile couples. Each case study represents a different ideal-typical pattern of how gender is entangled with mobility. We show how gender is ‘done’ and ‘undone’ by the academics and their partners throughout these mobility trajectories, and how these couples’ negotiations and practices are closely entangled with gender representations that are structurally anchored in labour markets and discursively expressed within the wider social environment. As such, this paper not only contributes to the academic literature by shedding light on a particular type of gendered highly skilled mobility, but also questions the dichotomy between economic men and social and cultural women sometimes reproduced in studies on highly skilled migration. Furthermore, the findings challenge earlier studies that suggest a causal link between mobility and the leaky pipeline by showing that important transformations with regard to gender relations are occurring and that mobility does not inevitably reinforce conventional gender practices.
Gender matters! Le genre comme élément crucial de la production des inégalités
Le genre est, aujourd’hui encore, un élément crucial dans la fabrication des inégalités sociales. Bien que l’égalité entre femmes et hommes soit en principe acquise sur le plan légal, les lois et les politiques en Suisse sont, de fait, sous-tendues par un régime de genre que nous appelons « classique » et qui se caractérise par une binarité cisgenre et hétéronormative. Ce régime classique reproduit un double paradoxe des inégalités de genre.
"Transnational mobility among early-career academics: gendered aspects of negotiations and arrangements within heterosexual couples."
Locality and transnational mobility in the early stages of academic careers : The importance of family and professional Networks
This paper is part of the research project entitled ‘Transnational Mobility of Academics in the Early Stages of their Careers: Transforming or Reproducing Gender Regimes?’ funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation. We present here results from an online survey we conducted in 2013 as regards the early-career academics’ experiences of international mobility within a broader social context. The paper focuses on academics’ reasons for becoming or not becoming mobile, on their professional and family trajectories, and on how mobility affects their careers and family lives. Our results show that mobile respondents from the Universities of Cambridge and Zurich have relatively different family trajectories and networks, but also more precarious academic paths, than their non-mobile counterparts. Furthermore, mobility does not really benefit these academics’ family life, and many academics pursue their careers without being mobile.