Boundary-crossing academic mobilities in glocal knowledge economies: new research agendas based on triadic thought

Abstract

This editorial introduction identifies a need for more multidimensional and collective theorisations of boundary-crossing academic mobilities in order to conceptualise this phenomenon, compare empirical findings, and identify new research perspectives. My suggestion is that triadic thought-or the thinking in three rather than two conceptual categories-overcomes some of the limitations that binary thought has imposed on social theory. By transforming the three conceptual dyads that frame this special issue on boundary-crossing academic mobilities, namely mobility/migration, students/academics, and local/global, into more differentiated relational triads, I argue that ordering and framing studies on academic and other mobilities through three-by-three matrices grounded in triadic thought helps to advance conceptual debate and unfold a wider research agenda in truly collective ways.

Comparative education in an age of competition and collaboration

“…If markets for scientific talent have always been wide, today they are nearly boundless, at least at the peaks and with the dominance of English as contemporary lingua franca. Elaborate migratory flows, massive government and philanthropic programmes, and everyday mobility enormously facilitate the exchange that leads to dense scientific networks, 'brain circulation', and the potential for collaboration on a vast scale (Sugimoto 2017;Jöns 2018). For example, the European Union's Erasmus programme or the US Fulbright Fellowships have enabled millions of students and faculty to visit other universities to broaden their horizons and explicitly gain knowledge and experience of another culture (Bhandari and Blumenthal 2011;Van Mol 2014).…”

“…States, foundations, and international organisations have systematically increased educational exchange and mobility of scientists. These trends are more than symbolically significant, as border crossings transform individual careers, epistemic networks, and scientific capacity (Jöns 2018). Yet such opportunities remain highly-stratified not only by region, but also along class, gender, and ethnic boundaries, despite transnational higher education and mobility having witnessed tremendous growth (Zippel 2017).…”

The making and transforming of a transnational in dialog: Confronting dichotomous thinking in knowledge production, identity formation, and pedagogy

“…Transnational academic mobility relates to academic travels involving academics, researchers, and graduate students across state and territorial borders (Alemu, 2019; Jöns, 2018; Kim and Locke, 2010; Kuzhabekova et al, 2019). Transnational academic mobility is often seen as bringing about potential benefits to both mobile academics and the HE institutions of both their countries of origin and destination (Hugo, 2009).…”

“…All these matters of culture and religion, coupled with Azmi constantly being asked by his professors overseas to detach himself from his Muslim biases for his own intellectual growth as a scholar of Islam, and then Azmi’s tendency to self-censor, are vivid examples of binary thought. We want to point out that binary thought, despite its known limitations on social theory and limits on our capacity to imagine and conceptualize (Jöns, 2018; Phan, 2017), is dominant, pervasive, and articulated at every single point in one’s socialization and (transnational) educational journeys. This reality has its own life and is nurtured by its army of transnational beings, encounters, norms, expectations, representational systems, and social theories, as we continue to show below.…”

Transnationally-trained scholars working in global contexts: Knowledge production, identity, epistemology, and career trajectories

“…With the increasing internationalization of higher education (HE) globally over the past two decades, there are now more scholars with some form of transnational mobility and experience than ever before (see, for example, Bauder et al, 2018; Chen, 2017; Jenkins, 2019; Jöns, 2018; Kim SK, 2016; Kim T, 2017, 2020; Kim and Locke, 2010; Koh and Sin, 2020; Kuzhabekova et al, 2019; Ortiga et al, 2018; Xu and Montgomery, 2018). From graduate students who obtain a PhD in a foreign country and then return to their home society to work, to professors who take up positions in a country other than the one(s) where they were raised and/or studied, the staff at ever more universities across the globe comprise ever more individuals with various forms of transnational experiences.…”