Emília Rodrigues Araújo

Understanding the PhD as a Phase in Time

The purpose of this article is to offer a contribution to the analysis of the time spent on researching and preparing a PhD thesis and its conceptualization as a ‘phase’. Prior research on PhD experiences used time to explain the doctorate in terms of the different lengths of time involved when comparing different disciplines and scientific areas of study (Bourdieu, 1983; Atkinson, 2000). To date, the PhD has not been considered as a genuine time experience. I intend to do so by bearing in mind the insights provided by time sociology frameworks. Thus, in this article it is assumed that respondents’ understanding of their PhD time as ‘a phase’ translates a deep experience of liminality, in which they understand themselves on the one hand as belonging simultaneously to a ‘now’ and a ‘then’ and, on the other, as being located in a linear temporal structure. In the light of the findings, it is suggested that the phase may be viewed as a key concept for theorizing the temporality of PhD experience.

‘With a Rope Around Their Neck’: Grant Researchers Living in Suspended Time

This paper identifies the relevance of developing further studies of academic/scientific identities at work. Qualitative analysis of interviews with junior researchers and contextual statistical data are used to examine the processes of identity construction in the pursuit of establishing both recognised status in scientific and research systems and a more rewarding and stable professional life path.

Temos de fazer um cavalo de troia: elementos para compreender a internacionalização da investigação e do ensino superior

El texto tiene como objetivo discutir la diversidad de significados que se atribuyen a la internacionalizacion de la investigacion y a la educacion superior. La internacionalizacion ha sido objeto de numerosas referencias en las politicas de evaluacion de la calidad de la ensenanza y de la investigacion. Al mismo tiempo, ha generado diversas interpretaciones, tanto en su favor, como en su contra. Tratamos de entender cuales son las razones por las que los actores de las organizaciones con mas poder de intervencion politica transmiten una representacion muy positiva de la internacionalizacion, aunque no siempre identificando los indicadores y las formas en que la medicion de este proceso deba realizarse. La investigacion tiene un caracter exploratorio y se centra, en particular, en los datos recogidos a traves de la observacion participante y una serie de entrevistas llevadas a cabo por correo electronico a los rectores, los vicerrectores y directores de centros de investigacion portugueses.The text aims to discuss the diversity of meanings attributed to the term internationalization in research and higher education. Internationalization has been the subject of numerous references in the policies for evaluating the quality of teaching and research. At the same time, it has generated various interpretations both in its favor, and to its disadvantage. We seek to understand why organizational actors, with more political power for intervention, convey an extremely positive representation of internationalization, although not always identifying the indicators and the correct ways of measurement for this process. The research has an exploratory nature and focuses in particular on data collected through participant observation and several interviews conducted via e-mail to university deans, vice deans and directors of Portuguese research centers.

Ecos do tempo. A mobilidade de investigadores e estudantes brasileiros em Portugal

A investigacao que apresentamos, de carater exploratorio, recaiu sobre historias biograficas de brasileiros que escolhem Portugal para prosseguir formacao e ou investigacao. Procura-se encontrar na sua experiencia elos de ligacao explicativos sobre as motivacoes e os processos que os trazem para Portugal, assim como as expetativas e os projetos que comportam para os seus futuros e que incluem, ou nao, este pais. Temos em conta, especialmente, a forma como essa narrativa transporta sentidos identitarios decorrentes das formas de relacionamento intercultural e politico entre Portugal e Brasil e formas de cooperacao implicitas, assim como mapas representacionais acerca dos lugares de eleicao para desenvolvimento de carreiras cientificas e academicas. A nossa pesquisa incide sobre as informacoes recolhidas atraves de um inquerito por questionario e entrevistas realizadas junto de estudantes e bolseiros brasileiros em Portugal.

The Place for Gender Research in Contemporary Portuguese Science and Higher Education Policies within the Context of Neo-liberalism

This article will discuss the place of gender research and gender studies in universities under the current neo-liberal modes of governance. Although gender studies has a considerable history within academia and science, gender studies’ contributions in several fields were either kept invisible or just voided. The current neo-liberal rationale has promoted commodification in higher education, individualisation, excessive workloads and performativity in academia. How can these new issues associated with the neo-liberal university be articulated with ‘old’ issues related to gender inequality and to the affirmation of gender studies? Critically analysing the trajectory of science policymaking and the evolution of gender studies in Portugal as well as gender mainstreaming policies implemented in recent years, we argue that it is possible to promote a gender science policy that is able to resist and ultimately make a transformative difference in the neo-liberal university.

Science and Technology Studies and Engineering Innovation: The Concepts of Future and Diversity

This paper seeks to demonstrate how engineering can benefit from science and technology studies. It focuses on four key issues: responsibility, sustainability, diversity, and public participation. Science and technology studies encompass a plethora of research concerning the various ways that science and technology relate to society. The main area for discussion is the idea that policy makers and practitioners in general must consider the social and the cultural context, alongside specific science, and technology issues. In other words, society, and culture - which constitute the framework for producing, using and engaging with knowledge - are embedded within the fields of science and technology, in multiple manners. It is therefore fundamental to develop innovation in a sustainable and coherent manner.

Unfolding various academic mobility experiences of Southeast Asian women

Abstract This article draws on data from a qualitative research study undertaken with the main aim of investigating the issue of the gender dimension of the academic mobility of Southeast Asian women. Our research describes Southeast Asian women’s experiences of mobility, narrating why they choose to be mobile, how the experience of going abroad was responded to and/or rejected by their family, how they experienced life in a different country, and what evaluations they make about these experiences in personal, familial, and professional terms. The article stresses the need to improve the understanding of the factors that are still determining the chances of women to be mobile and obtain fruitful gains from these experiences. For this to be attained, the article follows through an intersectional approach to mobility, considering it is of much use as it allows to comprehend that the disadvantages associated with gender are cumulative, multi-layered, resulting from effects of several variables, including of the emotional, social, economic, and political contexts.

O Contributo Da Semiótica Na Análise Da Política Contemporânea / The Contribution Of Semiotics In The Analysis Of Contemporary Politics

This paper focuses on the concept of social semiotics, trying to show what contributions the discipline brings to the understanding of some features in the relationship between contemporary politics and the media. We start from the idea that the introduction to communication and information technology, along with the development of various techniques of political communication and political marketing, converge on the accentuation of great complexity semiotics of political discourse. In this way, we will resort to analysis of recent episodes involving Portuguese politicians and their impact on Portuguese public opinion. We intend, therefore, contribute to a clarification of the relationship between contemporary politics and the media today in democratic societies, particularly in Portuguese society.

TENEMOS QUE HACER UN CABALLO DE TROYA: ELEMENTOS PARA ENTENDER LA INTERNACIONALIZACIÓN EN LA EDUCACIÓN SUPERIOR E INVESTIGACIÓN

El texto tiene como objetivo discutir la diversidad de significados que se atribuyen a la internacionalizacion de la investigacion y a la educacion superior. La internacionalizacion ha sido objeto de numerosas referencias en las politicas de evaluacion de la calidad de la ensenanza y de la investigacion. Al mismo tiempo, ha generado diversas interpretaciones, tanto en su favor, como en su contra. Tratamos de entender cuales son las razones por las que los actores de las organizaciones con mas poder de intervencion politica transmiten una representacion muy positiva de la internacionalizacion, aunque no siempre identificando los indicadores y las formas en que la medicion de este proceso deba realizarse. La investigacion tiene un caracter exploratorio y se centra, en particular, en los datos recogidos a traves de la observacion participante y una serie de entrevistas llevadas a cabo por correo electronico a los rectores, los vicerrectores y directores de centros de investigacion portugueses.The text aims to discuss the diversity of meanings attributed to the term internationalization in research and higher education. Internationalization has been the subject of numerous references in the policies for evaluating the quality of teaching and research. At the same time, it has generated various interpretations both in its favor, and to its disadvantage. We seek to understand why organizational actors, with more political power for intervention, convey an extremely positive representation of internationalization, although not always identifying the indicators and the correct ways of measurement for this process. The research has an exploratory nature and focuses in particular on data collected through participant observation and several interviews conducted via e-mail to university deans, vice deans and directors of Portuguese research centers.

WE HAVE TO MAKE A TROJAN HORSE: ELEMENTS TO UNDERSTAND INTERNATIONALIZATION IN THE HIGHER EDUCATION AND RESEARCH

El texto tiene como objetivo discutir la diversidad de significados que se atribuyen a la internacionalizacion de la investigacion y a la educacion superior. La internacionalizacion ha sido objeto de numerosas referencias en las politicas de evaluacion de la calidad de la ensenanza y de la investigacion. Al mismo tiempo, ha generado diversas interpretaciones, tanto en su favor, como en su contra. Tratamos de entender cuales son las razones por las que los actores de las organizaciones con mas poder de intervencion politica transmiten una representacion muy positiva de la internacionalizacion, aunque no siempre identificando los indicadores y las formas en que la medicion de este proceso deba realizarse. La investigacion tiene un caracter exploratorio y se centra, en particular, en los datos recogidos a traves de la observacion participante y una serie de entrevistas llevadas a cabo por correo electronico a los rectores, los vicerrectores y directores de centros de investigacion portugueses.The text aims to discuss the diversity of meanings attributed to the term internationalization in research and higher education. Internationalization has been the subject of numerous references in the policies for evaluating the quality of teaching and research. At the same time, it has generated various interpretations both in its favor, and to its disadvantage. We seek to understand why organizational actors, with more political power for intervention, convey an extremely positive representation of internationalization, although not always identifying the indicators and the correct ways of measurement for this process. The research has an exploratory nature and focuses in particular on data collected through participant observation and several interviews conducted via e-mail to university deans, vice deans and directors of Portuguese research centers.