Mobilizing Science: Transnationally Mobile Researchers in Comparative Perspective

The project investigates how the mobility experiences of international researchers are shaped by national knowledge regimes and, in turn, how the presence of foreign workforce shapes knowledge production in each of the contexts of the study: Latvia, Japan, and Montenegro.
As countries with low numbers of international workers in their research institutions, yet international cooperation oriented science policies, Latvia, Japan, and Montenegro constitute ideal locales for providing comparative data on the topic. This focus renders visible research mobility in the making, that is, the specific mechanisms through which transnationally mobile researchers are gradually incorporated in national research systems, and the ways these mechanisms are experienced by the researchers themselves.
The project relies on the ethnographic approach, with ethnographic fieldwork (participant observation, semi-structured and unstructured interviews) conducted in all three countries of the study.
The research results are expected to 1) further the knowledge in such social science fields as the anthropology of work and migration, as well as the interdisciplinary science and technology studies; 2) provide comparative ethnographic data-driven insights for the development of science policies that would benefit the state, research institutions and researchers.