Cross-dimensional mobility in European doctoral careers

In September 2007, I was invited to participate in the Research Conference “Higher Education and Social Change at the Beginning of the Twenty-First Century” of the European Science Foundation (ESF), taking place at Vadstena Klosterhotell in Sweden.

Here's a summary of the presentation I gave, on “Cross-Dimensional Mobility in European Doctoral Careers”:

The mobility of researchers between academia, private and public sectors, between European and non-European countries, and between disciplines is often termed the “three dimensions of mobility”: geographic, sectoral, and disciplinary. This is however a weak concept. “Cross-dimensional mobility” may be a more adequate way to describe messy real-life careers.

“Cross-dimensional mobility” is complex mobility across geographic, sectoral, disciplinary, social, and temporal dimensions. For example, a postdoc in Mathematics may well increase his salary tenfold if he makes a move into the financial sector [this may not be as true anymore in 2009] – thus being mobile in the sectoral dimension, but also being upwardly mobile in the social dimension, and possibly moving geographically too. That’s complex mobility. A German postdoc at the end of his maximum contracts who has not secured a professorship may become unemployed and nearly unemployable in any sector – thus becoming downwardly mobile socially and having, in career terms, possibly “lost” years of his life in the temporal dimension, etc. A Russian Economics graduate may move to the United Kingdom to do a PhD in Sociology because she can get funding for it there that is not available in Russia – complex mobility across the geographic, disciplinary, and social dimensions. Mobility in the temporal dimension happens for example when people are able to fast-track their careers by going to another country (where career progress is quicker) rather than staying in their own country – that’s complex mobility across the temporal, geographic, and social dimensions. In former Soviet republics, people may be doing a doctorate to get out of their countries afterwards – again, complex mobility across the geographic, social, and temporal dimensions (doing a doctorate with a view to future social advancement). On the other hand, many doctoral graduates from Poland are known to have ended up washing dishes in London – complex mobility across the geographic, social, and sectoral dimensions.

I myself did a commercial apprenticeship in Switzerland, studied Theology in Switzerland and South Africa, Public and Development Management in South Africa, Social and Political Thought in the UK and France, and also worked in Senegal, making use of different higher education systems and university entrance requirements to progress my educational qualifications, over the course of more than ten years, while also working in between (and sometimes parallel) in the private, public, and non-governmental sectors. That’s complex mobility across the geographic, temporal, sectoral, disciplinary, and social dimensions.

European doctoral careers are not one-directional, but multi-directional. They are not one-dimensional, but cross-dimensional. They are not linear, but messy. They entail complex mobility across various dimensions – that is, “cross-dimensional mobility”. It is important for policy makers and higher education researchers and practitioners alike to take note of this. Higher education will not be able to meet the changing needs of doctoral candidates and graduates in the twenty-first century unless it becomes aware of social transformations and cross-dimensional mobility.

At a personal level, each and every one of us should see the possibilities complex, cross-dimensional mobility offers as a chance to progress our own careers in Europe and worldwide. It is a chance, not a threat.