Abstract
This paper explores the geography of academic engagement patterns of native and foreign-born academics, contrasting how patterns of intranational and international engagement with non-academic actors differ between these two groups. We suggest that foreign-born academics will engage more internationally than their native-born colleagues, whereas native-born academics will have greater levels of intranational engagement. Drawing upon a large multi-source dataset, including a major new survey of all academics working in the UK, we find support for the idea that where people are born influences how they engage with non-academic actors. We also find that these differences are attenuated by an individual’s intranational and international experience, ethnicity and language skills. We explore the implications of these findings for policy to support intranational and international academic engagement.
Highlights
In a bid to justify investments in science, governments across the globe are moving towards more mission or impact oriented funding, which requires researchers to contribute more towards public concerns, often of national scope
We suggest that the ethnic background of an academic may shape the geography of their academic engagement efforts
The data on intranational interactions show that foreign-born academics are on average less likely to be involved in all 15 activities relative to UK-born academics
Summary
In a bid to justify investments in science, governments across the globe are moving towards more mission or impact oriented funding, which requires researchers to contribute more towards public concerns, often of national scope. This paper addresses this question of the balance between the national and international by comparing the geography of academic engagement with policy and practice by foreign and native-born UK based academics. We argue that native-born academics display a greater intranational orientation in their engagement efforts, building on their knowledge and experience of the national context. We suggest that the ethnic background of academics will shape their intra- and international and engagement, with foreign-born academics with non-majority identities having greater differences in terms of intranational (lower) and international (higher) engagement than their native-born colleagues. We suggest that native-born academics with non-majority ethnic identities exhibit higher rates of international engagement than their majority group domestic colleagues. This approach helps to build insights into how the career pathways of academics shape their external engagement, enriching our understanding of the micro-foundations of these behaviours
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