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.