Promising the earth: Forms of capital promised and pursued in Australian-Chinese research collaborations

Abstract

Science is a space of both collaboration and competition, illustrated by international research collaboration (IRC) and its advantages for individual countries, institutions and scientists. IRC also brings together countries positioned unequally in global epistemic hierarchies. Little is known about how scientists navigate these tensions within IRC. We explore this through a study of Australian–Chinese IRC, drawing on interviews with Australian scientists and Bourdieu's theoretical framework. We identify specific capitals that are sought and promised in Australian–Chinese IRC, namely, scientific, economic and ‘environmental’ capital, with successful collaboration depending also on social and cultural capital. Differences in how Australia and China are positioned in global academic and scientific fields, and differences between national scientific fields, mean that collaboration facilitates access to forms of capital unobtainable in scientists’ home settings. Because the benefits of IRC are fundamentally relational and promissory, these will change alongside the global hierarchies that are, themselves, being reshaped by IRC.