Is academia becoming more localised? The growth of regional knowledge networks within international research collaboration

It is well-established that the process of learning and capability building is core to economic development and structural transformation. Since knowledge is ‘sticky’, a key component of this process is learning-by-doing, which can be achieved via a variety of mechanisms including international rese...

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Main Authors: Fitzgerald, J, Ojanperä, SMO, O’Clery, N
Format: Journal article
Language:English
Published: Springer 2021
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author Fitzgerald, J
Ojanperä, SMO
O’Clery, N
author_facet Fitzgerald, J
Ojanperä, SMO
O’Clery, N
author_sort Fitzgerald, J
collection OXFORD
description It is well-established that the process of learning and capability building is core to economic development and structural transformation. Since knowledge is ‘sticky’, a key component of this process is learning-by-doing, which can be achieved via a variety of mechanisms including international research collaboration. Uncovering significant inter-country research ties using Scopus co-authorship data, we show that within-region collaboration has increased over the past five decades relative to international collaboration. Further supporting this insight, we find that while communities present in the global collaboration network before 2000 were often based on historical geopolitical or colonial lines, in more recent years they increasingly align with a simple partition of countries by regions. These findings are unexpected in light of a presumed continual increase in globalisation, and have significant implications for the design of programmes aimed at promoting international research collaboration and knowledge diffusion.
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spelling oxford-uuid:58a15efc-b94b-4729-a027-12b2819023a82022-03-26T17:04:39ZIs academia becoming more localised? The growth of regional knowledge networks within international research collaborationJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:58a15efc-b94b-4729-a027-12b2819023a8EnglishSymplectic ElementsSpringer2021Fitzgerald, JOjanperä, SMOO’Clery, NIt is well-established that the process of learning and capability building is core to economic development and structural transformation. Since knowledge is ‘sticky’, a key component of this process is learning-by-doing, which can be achieved via a variety of mechanisms including international research collaboration. Uncovering significant inter-country research ties using Scopus co-authorship data, we show that within-region collaboration has increased over the past five decades relative to international collaboration. Further supporting this insight, we find that while communities present in the global collaboration network before 2000 were often based on historical geopolitical or colonial lines, in more recent years they increasingly align with a simple partition of countries by regions. These findings are unexpected in light of a presumed continual increase in globalisation, and have significant implications for the design of programmes aimed at promoting international research collaboration and knowledge diffusion.
spellingShingle Fitzgerald, J
Ojanperä, SMO
O’Clery, N
Is academia becoming more localised? The growth of regional knowledge networks within international research collaboration
title Is academia becoming more localised? The growth of regional knowledge networks within international research collaboration
title_full Is academia becoming more localised? The growth of regional knowledge networks within international research collaboration
title_fullStr Is academia becoming more localised? The growth of regional knowledge networks within international research collaboration
title_full_unstemmed Is academia becoming more localised? The growth of regional knowledge networks within international research collaboration
title_short Is academia becoming more localised? The growth of regional knowledge networks within international research collaboration
title_sort is academia becoming more localised the growth of regional knowledge networks within international research collaboration
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