Analysing the Consequences of Academic Mobility and Migration

Book excerpt: The figure of the medieval “wandering scholar” (Pietsch) has never been as true as today: Academic Mobility and Migration have now become a reality for most people involved in higher education. We also know for sure that they are actively contributing to the postmodern transformation of the “social as society” into the “social as mobility” (Urry). Written by leading and emerging scholars, this volume explores the impact of Academic Mobility and Migration on institutions, people and their social environment. It also considers up-to-date aspects which remain relatively underexplored: Academic migration (vs. mobility), virtual academic mobility, North-South mobility, language policies at a “glocal” level, and questions of identity. The authors examine the personal, social, professional and educational consequences of Academic Mobility and Migration from a variety of disciplinal orientations including sociology, language education, linguistics and education. Some of the chapters also seek to propose alternative ways of analysing these phenomena. This unique book is an invaluable resource for anybody with an interest in educational mobility in the 21st century: researchers, teachers, policy-makers, politicians, administrators, but also college and university students.