CV analysis as a complementary methodological approach : investigating the mobility of Australian scientists

Human migration and geographic mobility of scientific and technical human capital are interwoven phenomena. Twin processes of human capital and social capital network formation through scientific mobility have been important for capacity building in the Asia-Pacific. This paper focuses on a sample of research participants from Australia, illustrating how CVs can enable methodological progress in filtering respondent survey data. In particular, CVs prove to be an effective data source for disentangling migration from scientific mobility, and in developing a stratified sample of forms of mobility for further qualitative data collection in this ongoing research. It is noted that CVs also show potential for appreciating collective processes of capital accumulation in the sciences, along with the durability of collective forms of organization, such as networks, over time.