Social mechanisms and strategic action fields: The example of the emergence of the European Research Area
The point of departure of this article is Fligstein and McAdam’s A Theory of Fields. It is argued that their theoretical framework would be strengthened by a more systematic focus in social mechanism-based explanations since this would increase understanding of how new strategic action fields (SAFs) emerge. This argument is illustrated by exploring the emergence of the European Research Area (ERA) as a SAF. In identifying social mechanisms the article draws both on Fligstein and McAdam’s studies and on academic capitalism literature. The main conclusion is that the emergence of the ERA was brought about by multiple social mechanisms such as collective attribution of threat/opportunity, soc…
Intra-regional mobility of PhD students in the European Union : the outcomes of region-making policy?
This paper examines the flow of intra-European Union (EU) students for doctoral (PhD) studies to identify reasons for differences in international student mobility and migration (ISM) among member states. Rather than conceptualising intra-EU PhD student ISM only through push–pull forces, we theorise the intra-EU PhD ISM is associated with relative levels of national resources or levels of capital. We investigate the intra-EU PhD ISM through dyadic country pairings allowing the use of Gravity models to estimate the effect of variables associated with stocks of capital ascribed to a country to the change in the number of PhD students. The findings of this study indicate while there is asymmet…
Expanding Research Capacity at United States Universities: a Study of Academic Research and Development Investment from 1990-2005
Growing emphasis has been placed on universities to contribute to the innovation process and as a result academic research and development expenditures have increased in recent years. Nevertheless, little is known about the specific ways in which universities have expanded their research capacity.This paper examines how universities in the United States (US) have expanded research capacity as research funding has increased. Specifically, it identifies what type of research infrastructure, including various categories of human capital and research equipment, are most closely associated with increased academic research funding. Using data from 375 US universities spanning the period 1990‐2005…