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Academic Work and Careers:Relocation, Relocation,Relocationhequ_514 174..188
Lynn McAlpine, University of Oxford,[email protected]
Abstract
Increasingly PhD graduates who wish to take up traditional academic positions(full-time teaching and research leading to permanence) are unable to findsuch jobs.They end up in fixed-term appointments as post-doctoral fellows orresearchers on others’ grants. Few studies document their experiences and mostthat do draw on data from the late 1990s and early 2000s.This longitudinalstudy reports on the experiences of five social science researchers in two uni-versities in the UK over the years 2008–2010. The analysis results in a richportrayal of the role of relocations as integral, yet often disruptive, to academicwork. Moreover, the multiple often concurrent work-related relocations in thetwo-year period had personal impact; this aspect of researcher life is rarelyreported. A subsequent review of similar data from doctoral students and newlecturers revealed the broader applicability of relocation in their lives. Theresults raise questions about the long-term impact of such relocations on newerresearchers.
Introduction
Moving into a permanent academic position after PhD graduation in thesocial sciences is not a common pattern. In the United Kingdom (UK),only 34 per cent of social science PhD graduates found positions asuniversity lecturers (UK Council for Graduate Education, 2009) and, inthe United States, obtaining the equivalent of a social science lecturerpost can take up to five years (Nerad et al., 2006). In fact, recent figurescontrast a three per cent increase in postdoctoral positions across disci-plines with only a 0.8 per cent increase in traditional academic positions(Horta, 2009); suggesting recent graduates are on fixed-term, full- orpart-time research contracts, whether funded on someone else’s grant orthrough personal fellowships (or contingent teaching posts).
Higher Education Quarterly, 0951–5224DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-2273.2012.00514.xVolume 66, No. 2, April 2012, pp 174–188
© 2012 The Author. Higher Education Quarterly © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 9600Garsington Road, Oxford, OX4, 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA.
Despite these trends, few studies have documented researcherexperiences. Studies from the late 1990s (Nerad and Cerny, 1999;Shelton et al., 2001) generally tell a story of the negative effects of therole including job insecurity and inferior standing.These effects continueto be reported into the mid-2000s (Allen Collinson, 2004; Åkerlind,2005) with annual turnover rates among UK researchers between 35 and50 per cent (Allen Collinson, 2004). More recent work has also attendedto additional themes: intellectual passion for work (McAlpine, 2010) anda nuanced representation of status (Turner and McAlpine, 2011).
The public discourse around researchers at least in the UK oftenseems to suggest commodities (for example, supply and demand, supplyof skills) to be shifted and used to ensure a country can maintain itsleading research position in the world.While there is a small but growingliterature on academic careers that refers to geographical border crossingand mobility as central to knowledge production (Enders, 2005; Horta,2009), this literature does not attend to how this ‘supply of skills’ isphysically and emotionally embodied in particular individuals. Thispaper undertakes to do that by tracing longitudinally the universityworkplace experiences of a small group of social science researchers aftergraduation. The aim was to explore the nature and extent of differentkinds of relocations and how these intersect in researchers’ personal andacademic lives.The results suggest the importance of policy attention tothese relocations, given their prominence in the lives of early careerresearchers.
Perspectives on identity
In common with others examining the experiences of early career aca-demics, the study is framed within an identity perspective. Conceptuali-sations of identity vary, for instance, multiple identities (Barnacle andMewburn, 2010); identities framed by race and class (Archer, 2008); oridentities constructed through socialisation (Olsen and Crawford, 1998).In general, these frameworks emphasise the reproductive features ofsociety. In contrast the research programme into the lives of doctoralstudents and those who are post-PhD has resulted in a view of identity,identity-trajectory, which emphasises the agency that individuals bring tonegotiating their lives (Archer, 2000) through time. Identity-trajectory(McAlpine et al., 2010), echoing Gidden’s (1991) influential work on thetrajectory of the self, incorporates a biographical perspective; individu-ally distinct past hopes and experiences influence present intentionsand engagement in academic work and other activities as well as futureimagined possibilities. Essential is the interweaving of personal values,
Academia as Multiple Workplaces 175
© 2012 The Author. Higher Education Quarterly © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
intentions, emotions, relationships and responsibilities. Individualsendeavour to exercise their agency within social, personal and physicalconstraints with the personal aspects of their lives creating the context inwhich academic work is undertaken.
Essential to the research approach in this paper is the notion thatnarratives, participants’ various stories of their experiences (Sfard andPrusak, 2005), provide a means to capture how they constitute theiridentities (Sfard and Prusak, 2005) at different points. Participant nar-ratives, once collected, provide the basis for researcher-constructed casesummaries. These reduced narratives, a form of data display, are shortyet integrate key elements of the multiple narratives each participant hasprovided; in this way the individual’s story is preserved while enablingcross-case analysis looking for common themes. Both participant andresearcher narratives make connections between events, represent thepassage of time, and show the intentions of individuals (Coulter andSmith, 2009). The underlying premises (Elliott, 2005) are:
• individual experiences (intentions, relationships and emotions) can beand often are constructed as narratives that connect events in a mean-ingful way;
• narratives can integrate two aspects of identity construction: the per-manence of an individual’s perception of personal identity throughtime combined with the sense of ongoing personal change rather thanstability.
Through listening to interviews, reading participant narratives andwriting the case summaries, the theme of relocation emerged.The notionof space or location and boundaries is not conceptually new, for instance,it has been used in framing careers (boundaryless careers (Arthur et al.,2005); third spaces (Berman and Pitman, 2010)) or disciplinary affilia-tion (space or location (Becher and Trowler, 2001)). While theseperspectives were pertinent to the analysis, they did not sufficientlyincorporate what appeared to have prominence in participant narratives.Thus relocation was defined broadly as shifts, moves, changes in relationto space, place, situation, state, time and affect (with physical, social andpsychological dimensions) experienced in both personal and academicaspects of life over time.The analysis was not focused on the boundariescreating different spaces or locations (as has often been the case) norsolely on the disciplinary and career aspects of space or location butrather on how individuals experienced, navigated and responded tomovement across and between multiple spaces or locations on anongoing basis.
176 Higher Education Quarterly
© 2012 The Author. Higher Education Quarterly © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Capturing researcher experience longitudinally
The five social science researchers in this study were part of a cohort ofsocial sciences doctoral students and researchers in two UK research-intensive universities when the research began.They have been providingdata for more than two years and represent a sub-set of the 14 in Turnerand McAlpine (2011) and McAlpine and Turner (2011), which docu-mented experience over a year. The five reflect the group as a whole asregards gender, range in age, experience and whether English was a first,or other, language.While the proportion from abroad may seem high, itis only slightly greater that the proportion of international doctoralstudents and researchers in the larger study.
Phase 1 (spring 2008 to winter 2008–2009). In the initial study, afterproviding biographical information, participants recorded the interac-tions and challenges of their day-to-day experiences in logs of a weeks’activity.The logs were sent to them monthly over a 10–12 month period;the number completed by each person varied from 4 to 12 months. Afterabout a year, pre-interview questionnaires were completed and inter-views were conducted drawing on log experiences and broader issues.
Phase 2 (late autumn 2009 to spring 2010). A similar data collectioncycle was repeated with three differences. The biographical informationincluded questions about changes participants had experienced duringthe year. In the interview, the changes they had reported were exploredand near the end of the interview individuals were asked to respond tothe idea of relocation with reference to their own experiences.
Researcher-generated case summaries were constructed through suc-cessive re-reading of each participant’s multiple accounts; these casenarratives incorporated the unique aspects of their identity-trajectoryprevious to and during the PhD, their ‘recent present’ and future hopes.Then, all data for each individual were read through several times todraw out the varied experiences of relocation. The goal was a thematicanalysis to characterise: a) the nature and extent of relocation; b) howthese multiple and ongoing relocations intersect in researchers’ personaland academic lives.
Experiencing relocations
The four females and one male (Table 1) were in their thirties with theexception of Catherine (early fifties).The four in their thirties had comefrom other countries either to do their PhDs or to work post-PhD; thetwo who came after their doctoral degrees spoke English as a secondlanguage. At the time of the second interview, Paul, Chef, CM and
Academia as Multiple Workplaces 177
© 2012 The Author. Higher Education Quarterly © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
TAB
LE
1P
arti
cipa
ntbi
ogra
phic
info
rmat
ion
end
ofst
udy
Nam
e/ag
e/n
alP
erso
nal
Pos
tspr
e-P
hDP
osts
held
post
-PhD
,(y
rspo
st-d
egre
e)R
easo
nfo
rdo
ing
PhD
;si
mila
rity
ofw
ork
toP
hDO
rigi
nalp
lans
/F
utur
eho
pes
Cat
heri
ne/
53/
UK
Tee
nage
child
ren
and
elde
rly
pare
nts;
wis
hes
not
tom
ove
far
from
whe
resh
eis
due
topa
rent
s;fa
ther
illan
ddi
edth
ispa
stye
ar
Tru
stee
for
NG
Oco
ntra
ctto
inpu
tda
tain
sam
eun
itas
now
non-
acad
emic
adm
inis
trat
orre
sear
chas
sist
ant
PhD
insa
me
unit
3m
thco
ntra
ct,
then
2nd2
conc
urre
ntfo
r3
yrs
3-yr
fello
wsh
ip3
conc
urre
ntpr
ojec
tsfo
rva
ried
tim
es,
(7)
Nee
ded
PhD
toen
ter
field
;inc
reas
ekn
owle
dge
inm
yfie
ld;h
ave
aro
lein
shap
ing
and
coor
dina
ting
rese
arch
fram
ewor
kfo
rth
ear
ea
Lec
ture
ror
wor
kin
NG
O
Sim
ilar
but
mor
efa
stm
ovin
gan
dpo
licy
rela
ted
Lec
ture
rfo
rse
curi
tybu
tco
ncer
ned
abou
tim
pact
onre
sear
ch
Che
f/35
/N
on-U
KA
way
from
coun
try,
fam
ily;
boyf
rien
dse
lf-e
mpl
oyed
inot
her
coun
try—
got
enga
ged
this
past
year
;w
ants
ulti
mat
ely
tofin
da
loca
tion
whe
rebo
thca
nfin
dw
ork
but
not
stra
ight
forw
ard
Hig
hsc
hool
teac
her
inho
me
coun
try
mov
edto
Lon
don
tote
ach
Mas
ters
inne
wci
ty/u
nive
rsit
yP
hDin
sam
eun
iver
sity
part
-tim
ere
sear
chas
sist
ant
near
end
ofP
hDco
nsul
ting
and
part
-tim
ere
sear
cher
6m
onth
shi
red
onpr
ojec
tfo
r4
year
sin
diff
eren
tun
itin
sam
eun
iver
sity
afte
r2
year
s,50
per
cent
pers
onal
fello
wsh
ip,
50pe
rce
ntco
ntin
ued
cont
ract
5yr
cont
ract
in1
proj
ect
inP
hDun
it,
(6)
Beg
angr
adua
tew
ork
toim
prov
ete
achi
ngW
ante
dto
bea
lect
urer
Diff
eren
tin
cont
ract
post
,bu
tsi
mila
rin
fello
wsh
ip;
also
sim
ilar
now
in5-
yrco
ntra
ct;
tim
eto
appl
yfo
rhe
row
npr
ojec
ts
Con
tinu
esto
wan
tto
bea
lect
urer
CM
/36
/N
on-U
KA
way
from
coun
try,
fam
ily,
and
frie
nds
due
tohu
sban
d’s
job;
diff
eren
tla
ngua
ge;
3ch
ildre
n;co
uld
get
job
inU
Sbu
tw
ishe
sno
tto
mov
edu
eto
fam
ily
Pha
rmac
euti
cal
sale
sre
pin
non-
Eng
lish
spea
king
coun
try
PhD
inho
me
coun
try
mov
edto
UK
due
tohu
sban
d’s
job
visi
ting
fello
w(n
ofu
nds)
1yr
insa
me
cent
re/
univ
ersi
tyas
now
3rd
baby
som
ater
nity
leav
eco
ntra
ct15
mth
sne
w2-
yrco
ntra
ctan
othe
r2-
yrco
ntra
ct,
(5)
Incr
ease
know
ledg
ein
my
field
;pur
sue
pers
onal
inte
rest
Res
earc
her
but
wan
tsse
curi
ty,s
om
aybe
lect
urer
Sti
lllo
okin
gat
polic
ies
but
not
inhe
ror
igin
alar
eaan
dle
ssth
eore
tica
lN
owco
nsid
ers
adm
inis
trat
oras
apo
ssib
ility
Jenn
ifer
/32
/N
on-U
KA
way
from
coun
try,
nucl
ear
fam
ilyan
dfr
iend
s;ha
spa
rtne
rhe
rein
sam
efie
ldas
supp
ort
thou
ghfin
ding
two
jobs
insa
me
city
not
stra
ight
forw
ard
Con
sult
ant,
pers
onal
assi
stan
tM
aste
rsen
viro
nmen
tto
UK
for
2ndM
aste
rsP
hDin
sam
eun
iver
sity
2co
ncur
rent
part
-tim
esa
lari
edpo
sts
inot
her
univ
ersi
tyle
ctur
erpo
stin
thir
dU
Kun
iver
sity
seek
ing
perm
anen
ce,
(2)
Pur
sue
pers
onal
inte
rest
s;w
ork/
stud
yov
erse
as;e
arn
mor
em
oney
and
expe
ctea
rnin
gsw
illin
crea
se
Con
sulta
nt,w
ork
inN
GO
Ear
lier,
sim
ilar
in1
part
-tim
epo
stbu
tno
tin
othe
r;no
was
lect
urer
wel
lpl
aced
Lec
ture
rho
pes
for
soci
alim
pact
Pau
l/39
/N
on-U
K3
shif
tsin
coun
try,
lang
uage
,an
dun
iver
sity
sinc
eco
mpl
etin
gP
hD;
wif
ean
dch
ildre
nha
vem
oved
wit
hhi
m;
wif
eex
trem
ely
illth
ispa
stye
ar;
conc
erne
dab
out
mov
ing
agai
nbe
caus
eof
child
ren
Mas
ters
and
PhD
in2
Eur
opea
nun
iver
siti
es1
yras
rese
arch
erin
3rdE
urop
ean
univ
ersi
tyse
vera
lm
ths
inot
her
Eur
opea
nun
iver
sity
asre
sear
cher
rese
arch
erin
UK
univ
ersi
ty3
mth
over
lap
ofre
sear
chpo
stw
ith
mov
eto
3yr
lect
urer
-res
earc
her
in3rd
Eur
opea
nun
iver
sity
wit
hch
ance
of3-
yrre
new
alkn
ows
mus
tge
tse
cond
PhD
and
mov
eag
ain
ifto
get
ale
ctur
erpo
st,
(5)
Nee
ded
PhD
toen
ter
into
and
adva
nce
infie
ld;i
ncre
ase
know
ledg
ein
my
field
Wan
ted
tobe
ale
ctur
er
InU
Kpo
stco
mbi
ned
new
field
wit
hea
rlie
rin
tere
sts;
now
tryi
ngto
adva
nce
own
inte
rest
sin
seco
ndP
hD
Con
tinu
esto
wan
tto
bea
lect
urer
178 Higher Education Quarterly
© 2012 The Author. Higher Education Quarterly © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Catherine had completed their degrees from 5–7 years beforehandwhereas Jennifer was just 2 years post-PhD. Table 1 provides a con-densed view of the personal aspects of their lives, the multiple posts theyhave held both prior to and after their PhDs and the ways in which theyhad imagined and now see their futures.
The thematic analysis provided a means to frame conceptually theways in which researchers experienced relocations: a notion that reso-nated with them. One kind of relocation could precipitate another andindividuals were often experiencing multiple relocations concurrentlyand over time; thus there was a cumulative impact.The personal aspectsof their identity-trajectories were key to their academic work, in otherwords, could both support and constrain the academic, beginning evenbefore the PhD. The analysis highlighted four relocations related to thepersonal aspect of identity-trajectory (life-family-work, geographical,cultural and linguistic) and four related to the academic (networking,intellectual, institutional, academic/non-academic). Each of the clustersof relocations is described below with reference to participants’ storiesand the literature.
The personal aspects of identity-trajectory
Life-family-work relocation represents the ways in which work is situatedwithin broader lives and relationships, with a particular emphasis onquality of life. This was experienced: a) as a daily tension; b) as along-term challenge. All five experienced this relocation in some formand it appeared to be a given in their lives. In her logs, Catherine oftenmentioned endeavouring, not always successfully, to ensure her well-being within a busy work schedule as well as caring for her elderlyparents. Similarly, CM with three children and an extended familyelsewhere experienced both the daily and long-term forms of relocation:a distance from important family relationships that could provide emo-tional and day-to-day help and her three children as a ‘second shift’ at theend of her work day. Chef described the long-term tensions of balancinga desire to be with her fiancé in another country and the lack of jobs forher in that country: not knowing how she might achieve what shewanted. Both Catherine and Paul experienced critical family illness thattemporarily influenced the ways in which they directed their energies.
Geographical relocation represents physical and concomitant changesin moving from one country to another, from one city to another. Thisrelocation entails considerable time and energy but appeared to betaken-for-granted. Chef, CM, Jennifer and Paul had all experiencedseveral relatively long-term geographical relocations. All four had moved
Academia as Multiple Workplaces 179
© 2012 The Author. Higher Education Quarterly © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
countries; Chef and Jennifer had moved cities within the UK and Paulwithin his home country. Catherine had specifically chosen not to movefor family reasons; recognising the limitations this would impose on herwork. Chef’s story emphasised the transience, the provisional nature, ofthis type of relocation, not knowing how long she would be in any onelocation. Paul stressed the importance of serendipity and being open togoing wherever the jobs were.
Cultural relocation represents transitions to new regional or nationalshared or collective practices and taken-for-granted assumptions andbeliefs. All four from outside the UK commented on this relocation, eventhe English-language speakers. Jennifer, for instance, who had been in theUK for six years and was married to a UK national, remarked that she stillhad experiences, every week or so, when she had to call on her partner tointerpret what had happened. For her and Chef, this relocation, whilerecognised, was relatively unchallenging but this was not necessarily thecase for English-as-another-language speakers, such as CM and Paul.CMand Paul both noted how cultural relocation could impact on their abilityto interpret people and thus engage in social interaction.
Linguistic relocation is linked to geographical and cultural relocationand was experienced by CM and Paul who used English-as-another-language. The impact was experienced in all interactions, for instance,creating insecurity for Paul in the pub. CM observed that this relocationspilled over into work; in navigating her career, her lack of ability tointerpret others and express herself limited her more in the UK than inher home country.
In summary, these four relocations related to personal intentions,relationships and interests. While some relocations were intentional,others were serendipitous but taken up, unexpected but dealt with, andsome strongly influenced by other’s intentions and desires. In relation tolife-family-work, while the challenges for female academics dealing withyounger family have often been reported (Brown andWatson, 2010), theissues were broader than that.The only male in the study also expressedconcern about the impact of his academic decisions on his children;another referred to elder care; others were seeking employment possi-bilities that would enable living with a partner. There was frequentreference to ensuring quality of life (finding time to relax and rest,not work) thus emphasising the need to replenish, maintain and worktowards ensuring physical and emotional resources. The stories theseindividuals told made clear that decisions regarding personal relocationsinfluenced their horizons for action; the potential career possibilitiesindividuals might consider taking up.
180 Higher Education Quarterly
© 2012 The Author. Higher Education Quarterly © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
The academic aspect of identity-trajectory
Networking and intellectual relocations represent: a) present and pastscholarly relationships that serve as resources and may carry responsi-bilities; b) past and continuing contributions to the chosen field that leadto recognition.These two relocations, which intertwine, took two forms:a) individuals shifting from one to another paid research project oftenperipheral to their expertise; and b) individuals trying to maintain theirown networking and intellectual work while being paid to do workoutside, or on the periphery of, their interests and expertise. All fiveexperienced these. In beginning to work on a new project, networkingwas difficult because individuals did not know the discourse, the ideasand the thinkers important to their new colleagues; and much time hadto be invested to enter into the new area. This relocation precipitatedintellectual struggles in order to contribute (knowing what the importantquestions were in the area, knowing where to publish) and yet theyneeded to be able to contribute and publish to progress their careers.
CM felt her involvement in so many different projects made it hard topin down how she located herself. Her self-description was ‘undisci-plined’: not understanding where those she was working with came fromand this made it difficult to know where to publish. Catherine in takingon new projects commented on needing to learn how those in the fieldshe would be joining viewed the world and then relate that to how shemight contribute. Paul also reported the disadvantages of not having aspecific canon to draw on in trying to get published.
Regarding the second aspect of this relocation, Chef and Pauldescribed how difficult it was to maintain their own networking andintellectual work alongside their paid work.There were constant explicitreminders and deadlines for the paid work while no one at work encour-aged or recognised progress on their own work. Paul said that his wife,who had a PhD, was the one who coached him in this regard. Notsurprisingly, these networking and intellectual relocations produced con-siderable frustration. Further, they were sometimes intertwined with theinstitutional.
Institutional relocation represents responsibilities as well as theresources related to an individual’s institutional location, which canconstrain and support the development of the networking and intellec-tual aspects of work.While this relocation is inherently geographical, thefocus here is on the social and political shifts that are being dealt with.This category is best understood as having three aspects: a) institutionaldifference both within and across institutions (which brings with it new
Academia as Multiple Workplaces 181
© 2012 The Author. Higher Education Quarterly © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
systems; different resources); b) role distinction (contract researcher andfellowship researcher; researcher of any kind and lecturer); c) multipleconcurrent managers sometimes including more than one office). Allexcept Catherine changed institutions, often a number of times, as wellas departments, with three of the four describing differences in institu-tional systems between the UK and elsewhere. Seeking and then plan-ning for institutional relocations was particularly stressful as contracts orfellowships neared their end.
Paul described the physical (for example, having to get acquaintedwith the new library) as well as the networking or intellectual aspects ofinstitutional relocations. Institutions did not seem to recognise thatdespite the contract ending, ‘your [research] work may not end . . . soyou still need access to the infrastructure.’ Jennifer, in moving, comparedwhat she saw as the poor quality and standing of the research in herprevious institutional home with that in her new location where her fieldwas seen as more legitimate and central. She recognised that her intel-lectual location was strongly influenced by her institutional location. Shealso compared her experience in the UK with her home country, recog-nising all the things that were new because she had come throughanother system. Chef described how institutional relocation led to net-working and intellectual relocations. In her first contract the institutionalrelocation moved her away from her PhD department to anotherdepartment in the same institution which left her feeling isolated anddisconnected. Her next move back to her PhD department was experi-enced as returning ‘home’ but, at the same time, she still felt on theperiphery because the work she was doing was not directly linked tothe department’s teaching programmes. Interestingly, teaching emergedpositively for Paul and Jennifer as a result of institutional relocation. Inboth cases, the relocation created a sense of belonging in finding theycould contribute to the institutional mission through their teaching in away they could not before. These references by Paul, Jennifer and Chefto teaching, an institutional responsibility, suggest that the scope of theteaching programmes in a department clearly influence the networkingand intellectual aspects of academic work.
Additionally, participants experienced relocations related to differentinstitutional roles. Two respondents, Catherine and Chef, shifted fromcontract research of short duration to, in one instance, a fellowship and,in the other, a five-year contract: in each case these shifts were experi-enced very positively.The other shift was between any kind of researcherpost and a lectureship. The two who applied for lectureships (Jenniferand CM) had different experiences. CM remained ambivalent about
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© 2012 The Author. Higher Education Quarterly © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
becoming a lecturer because she very much enjoyed research, whereasJennifer experienced it positively as enhancing her status and her accessto more resources.
Finally, Catherine, Chef and Jennifer held concurrent posts at certaintimes. Jennifer described the effect of these daily relocations as having‘three people who have ownership of my time’.
Academic/non-academic relocation represents the shifts required inworking and communicating with those outside of the academy in rela-tion to one’s academic field. Catherine described the tension in this way:‘Policymakers want some kind of certainty. . . . I don’t deal enough inthat. . . . and it’s always challenging trying to say things in a way that it’sas clear as possible, so that it doesn’t get mis-interpreted.’ While onlyCatherine amongst the five described this kind of relocation, it alsoemerged in some of the doctoral and new lecturer data. Given nationalpolicies increasingly expect research to have social impact, futureanalyses will seek to document the extent to which this relocation isexperienced. In summary, all participants referred to the challenges ofnetworking during these relocations.This included the effort invested inorder to feel and be recognised as a participant in a discourse commu-nity: not just using the ‘right’ language but also demonstrating the rightcombination of values, gestures, beliefs, attitudes, acts and words. Par-ticipants’ struggles to know who was important in the field and whatmethods and epistemologies were preferred in turn impacted on theintellectual aspects of their work, their ability to contribute, which couldreduce their sense of expertise. There was sometimes a tension betweenmeeting the objectives of the research projects for which they weresalaried (relatively short timelines) and trying to publish (long-termtimelines), yet the latter was essential to their intellectual profiles andtheir career attractiveness. In other words, these relocations coulddisrupt the development of their identity-trajectories. While job insecu-rity and status remained an issue (Nerad and Cerny, 1999; Åkerlind,2005), contrary to what might have been expected, the two with the mostexperience of contract work were still not convinced they wanted alectureship since teaching was perceived as taking them away from theirresearch. They preferred being researchers despite the demands ofrepeated networking and intellectual relocations.
While institutional responsibilities could constrain individual inten-tions and the development of networking and intellectual strands ofidentity-trajectory, institutional resources (such as, salary and officespace) also provided some of the opportunity structures (McAlpine andTurner, 2011) within which individuals could progress their careers.
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Thus, it is important to consider how structural attributes (for example,duties and grades), physical co-location (for example, shared officespace) and personal attributes (for example, gender), might influence thedevelopment of local as well as external network connections (Pilbeamand Denyer, 2009). Catherine’s experience is salutary since though shehad not moved institutionally she had held a number of different rolesthat had extended her institutional, networking and intellectual reach.Further, what was evident, and not previously reported, was the way inwhich an individual’s ability to contribute to institutionally-based teach-ing could influence both networking and intellectual allegiance.
Lastly, for those using English as another language, there were addi-tional challenges at work that could influence their ability to network andmake intellectual contributions. Still, Horta et al. (2010) reported that‘post-docs’, especially those who have experience away from their homecountry, are more productive on a number of scholarly criteria thanthose who remain.
Participant perspectives
The notion of relocation was perceived as meaningful by participants,most of whom had experienced it in a range of different forms.Their keyreflections are noted here.
Catherine focused on her networking, intellectual and academic/non-academic relocations.
I’m sort of shuttling around . . . academically, it’s rich . . . meeting people,getting all these different perspectives . . . but there is a bit of a tensionbetween . . . wanting to meet people and wanting to get into new areasand . . . a slight sort of missionary impulse, you know, to get people interestedin what I’m interested in. . . . At the same time, you feel you’re sacrificing,perhaps, depth.
Chef suggested that individual trajectories can be influenced by per-sonal intention, by serendipity as well as other’s decisions, and that thesecan lead to relocations. So, in referring to her geographical and culturalrelocations as well as her first institutional relocations, ‘I was ready forthose moves’. On the other hand, her first researcher role post-PhD waslargely the result of serendipity (being in the right place) and then later,others’ decisions regarding her institutional location and the lastresearcher post was not a positive experience.
CM too emphasised that personal intention is often influenced byothers needs and desires, which can influence the horizons for action.For CM, her family ‘is more important than my job,’ so her decisionsabout her own career are situated within her role as a parent. ‘I
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could . . . continue in this [repeated institutional, networking, intellec-tual location] but in . . . the wider aspect of . . . where we want to be asa family, it’s more complex.’
Jennifer commented on the relative weight she gives to her reloca-tions, referring to her geographical and institutional relocations to a newuniversity as being ‘absolutely key for the way in which I feel aboutwhat I’m doing;’ they enabled her to align her networking and intellec-tual practices with her personal values: ‘rectified that . . . aspect ofhypocrisy . . . align[ed] my values and my behaviour’. Of lesser impor-tance to her was the impact of the institutional relocation of role fromresearcher to lecturer or the negotiation of cultural relocation, theongoing feeling of not fully understanding cultural practices.
Paul experienced all forms of relocation, remarking that relocation ofany kind takes time, energy and investment:
Until you become acquainted with the new procedures. . . . it’s important foryour well-being . . . to invest . . . to engage in getting to know people.. . . That’s especially important with family.
Given the lack of academic positions, he observed he might need tomove outside academia: a difficult relocation. He ended with a commentabout the impact on his children of geographical, and sometimes culturaland linguistic, relocations:
With . . . relocation, I mainly think about the children! . . . finding a new,good school if we have to move to another town and leaving their friendsbehind and they are going to have to readjust to new people and so on.That’sthe main concern!
While this analysis focused on post-PhD researchers, in consideringthe results within the overall research programme it became clear thatmany of these relocations were also being reported by doctoral studentsand new lecturers though with some differences in emphasis. Like thesefive researchers, family-work-life relocation was reported by most andgeographical and cultural relocations were often experienced; thoughlinguistic relocation less so. While academic relocations were all presentin students and new lecturers, their occurrences were much reduced incomparison with the post-PhD researchers, probably because both stu-dents and new lecturers were situated in longer-term positions.
Policy implications
The analysis is particularly timely given the on-going demands, con-straints, insecurities and stressors that contract researchers face within
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national higher education policy contexts, such as that in the UK(Kinman and Court, 2010). The patterns portrayed in these lives chal-lenge the traditional assumption of the period post-PhD as one ofsocialisation and intellectual growth in a similar way to that of the PhD.The patterns rather suggest the creation of a new type of academic careeremerging alongside a traditional view of academic work constitutingresearch and teaching. Further, the mobility present in most of thesestories may represent a trend for researchers to perceive opportunitystructures in global rather than national terms with the concomitantimpact on their, and their families’, quality of life.
Horta et al. (2010) have commented that engaging in a post-doctoralpost can be understood as a personal investment in knowledge acquisi-tion and diffusion while often dealing with constrained opportunitystructures. This leads to what Goode (2006) has described as theparadox of the wealth of varied research experience that these research-ers accrue while still being marginalised. In a similar vein, Hey (2001)noted the contradictions in the academic division of labour. More estab-lished researchers are dependent on contract researchers to make thingshappen, yet the potential intellectual capital and symbolic capital theseindividuals develop as a result of relocations is often unrecognised andunrewarded. Academic employers could consider how to recognise andreward the accrued networking, intellectual and institutional capabilitiesand flexibility gained by such researchers in adjusting rapidly torelocations. To what extent do structural resources (such as conferencefunding) and physical space (for example, offices, mail slots) recognisethe contributions of these individuals? Further, in creating new positionsfor early career academics, they might consider the influence of personalrelocations on investment in academic work. For instance, what supportsand resources are in place to ensure smoother transitions not just for theresearcher but also family members? Addressing such questions couldenhance transitions in and out of new roles, posts and locations. On thewhole, academics do not ‘bring to the surface and publicly discussthe conditions under which people are hired, given tenure, published,awarded grants and feted’ (Gill, 1998, 38; as reported in Hey, 2001).Given the impact of these relocations on individuals and ultimately onthe research ‘enterprise’, such examination seems crucial.
Conclusion
This paper explored the nature and extent of relocations in the lives ofearly career academics and how these multiple and on-going relocationsintersected in the researchers’ personal and academic aspects of their
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identity-trajectories. Space and location have been used previously toframe careers as well as academic disciplinary affiliations. Earlier studiesof researchers have focused on institutional features of the experience,for example, short-term contracts.While these aspects were evident here,the conceptual story was much more complex revealing important andsometimes unexpected trends. Overall, multiple forms of relocationsinfluenced experience and decision making. Relocations could be rela-tively permanent or short to medium term (that individuals knew wouldend) and could be consecutive or concurrent. One form of relocationoften precipitated others and while personal relocations influenced aca-demic work, academic relocations often had personal repercussions.Relocations also had emotional impact. They could be experienced aspositive in supporting intentions and personal values, as negative inpreventing or constraining intentions and sometimes as neutral. Often,there were mixed emotions or an emotional investment required in orderto maintain a relocation. What was apparent was the biographical, per-sonally situated nature of academic work within individuals’ larger lives,particularly the embodied experience (physical, social, emotional andpsychological) of these many intertwined relocations.
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