Academic mobility is increasingly presented as indispensable for a successful academic career. This imperative is rooted in the assumption that mobility contributes to academic excellence because it allows academics to build transnational academic networks. Based on biographical interviews and an analysis of the mobility networks of early-career academics at three universities (Zurich, Cambridge, and UCLA), we examine the composition of these academics’ networks at different times and discuss the role of transnational ties within them. We find that increased mobility does indeed result in more transnational networks, but it does not increase academic social capital. The additional transnational ties mainly consist of transnational kinship and friendship relations. Furthermore, the mobility of early-career academics triggers various forms of mobility among their family members. Finally, early-career academics can build transnational academic ties without necessarily becoming mobile themselves, thanks to the mobility of higher-ranked academics.

中文翻译：

---

早期职业学者中的跨国流动网络和学术社会资本：超越常识假设

学术流动越来越被认为是成功学术生涯不可或缺的一部分。这种必要性源于这样一种假设，即流动性有助于学术卓越，因为它允许学者建立跨国学术网络。基于对三所大学（苏黎世、剑桥和加州大学洛杉矶分校）早期职业学者的流动网络的传记访谈和分析，我们研究了这些学者在不同时期的网络构成，并讨论了跨国关系在其中的作用。我们发现流动性的增加确实会导致更多的跨国网络，但它并没有增加学术社会资本。额外的跨国关系主要包括跨国亲属关系和友谊关系。此外，早期职业学者的流动引发了其家庭成员之间的各种形式的流动。最后，由于高级学者的流动性，处于职业生涯早期的学者可以建立跨国学术联系，而不必自己移动。