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The Global Connections of Intellectual Workers

An Australian Study

Julian Wood

University of Sydney

June Crawford

University of New South Wales

The sociology of intellectuals, long focused on the metropole, needs to move to a world scale. Study of global connections in the intellectual labour process is the most promising way. In this article, a method is developed for defining the intellectual labour force and studying its international participation. Results are presented from a survey of 500 Australian intellectual workers. Within this workforce, international connections are common and communication technology is extensively used. Several dimensions of international connection form coherent scales. International connection is stronger in the university sector than the corporate sector. Metropolitan primacy is acknowledged but the intellectual workforce is being reproduced in the periphery. Patterns of international involvement differ by generation and by field, but not by gender. A statistical model predicting levels of international practice is developed, which highlights the importance of social recruitment processes and current institutional functioning. The study demonstrates that a national intelligentsia can be analysed in relation to global processes and an empirical approach to the study of intellectuals on a world scale is possible.

Key Words: globalization • intellectuals • labour process • sociology of knowledge • technology

International Sociology, Vol. 20, No. 1, 5-26 (2005)
DOI: 10.1177/0268580905049907


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