Mobilities and social capital: understanding the importance of international networking to progression in research careers

This paper draws on research conducted as part of the POCARIM study of mobilities and career progression in the social sciences and humanities. The findings underline the importance of certain forms of mobilities associated with network-building to career entry and advancement. Networks play an important role in providing opportunities for publication and dissemination but also as conduits for ‘inside’ information about employment and research opportunities despite the growing policy emphasis on ‘open recruitment’. In many respects this aspect of geographical mobility is as or more critical to career progression than other more long term forms of researcher mobility. The paper reviews recent research on networking and careers before providing an analysis of the POCARIM research findings. From a theoretical perspective the paper challenges the emphasis on more long term forms of occupational (moving for job) mobility to capture the dynamics of short term, business travel, (within job) mobilities. It concludes by assessing the policy implications of the findings with a particular emphasis on gender dimensions and wider equality concerns