 Dr Heike Jöns
Dr. phil. (Heidelberg)
Lecturer in Human Geography
email: H.Jons@lboro.ac.uk
Tel : +44 (0)1509 228199
Fax: +44 (0)1509 223930
Room NN.1.20b, Martin Hall building, East Park
Research Interests
My research interests revolve around the geographies of knowledge and higher education with particular reference to the nature and outcome of transnational mobility and the study of academic networks. The main period of interest has been the 20th century. I also have a background in research on geographies of bank branch networks in Hungary and on European centres of interaction in the Middle Ages. These research experiences are linked by an interest in the nature of actor-networks and related debates on theories and practices of representation. In the following I outline the aims of my main research projects.
1) Geographies of Higher Education and Research
Based on a long-standing research interest in academic travel and networks, I have started looking at different dimensions of geographies of higher education and research, including globalization processes through academic mobility in the 20th century and the recent internationalization of British Universities through non-UK academic staff. Work in progress critically examines the geographies of world university rankings and their implications for global higher education and research.
Key publications
Hoyler, M. and Jöns, H. (2008) Global knowledge nodes and networks, in Johnson, C., Hu, R. and Abedin, S. (eds) Connecting Cities: Networks. Sydney: Metropolis, 124-151. ISBN 978-0-7347-5230-7
Hoyler, M. and Jöns, H. (2008) Kampf um Talente? Internationalisierung britischer Universitäten. Geographische Rundschau 60 (6), 60-64
Jöns, H. (2008) Globalisierung der Wissenschaften, in Gebhardt, H., Meusburger, P. and Wastl-Walter, D. (eds) Humangeographie by Paul L. Knox and Sallie A. Marston. 4th edition, Heidelberg: Spektrum Akademischer Verlag, 96-98. ISBN 978-3-8274-1815-9
Hoyler, M. and Jöns, H. (eds) (2007) Global Mobility and the Knowledge Society: Special Issue. Social Geography 2-3, ISSN 1729-4274
2) Academic Travel and Networks
a. US Senior Scientists in Germany, 1972-1996
My doctoral research project examined the motivations of US senior scientists to spend a sabbatical year in Germany as part of the Award Winner Programme of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. Based on 61 semi-structured interviews with former visiting senior scientists, anonymously given data on all US Humboldt Award Winners (N=1,719) and a complete postal survey (return rate: 65%, or 1,020 questionnaires), the work also explored the ways in which the visiting scientists collaborated in Germany, their experiences on and off campus and the long-term consequences of these research stays.
Key publication
Jöns, H. (2003) Grenzüberschreitende Mobilität und Kooperation in den Wissenschaften: Deutschlandaufenthalte US-amerikanischer Humboldt-Forschungspreisträger aus einer erweiterten Akteursnetzwerkperspektive. Heidelberg: Department of Geography. 514 pp. ISBN 3-88570-116-2
b. Academic Mobility to Germany, 1954-2000
Building upon the results on academic mobility between the USA and Germany, this project examines the nature and outcome of academic mobility to Germany from different countries and disciplines over a period of almost 50 years. Funded by the German Research Council and supported by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, it includes the analysis of anonymously given data on all Humboldt research fellows (N=17,216) and Humboldt hosts (N=10,349) in the period of interest, a postal sample survey of Humboldt research fellows (return rate: 51%, or 1,893 questionnaires), a postal sample survey of Humboldt hosts (return rate: 41%, or 1,040 questionnaires) and 25 semi-structured interviews with former visiting academics.
Key publications
Jöns, H. (2009) 'Brain circulation' and transnational knowledge networks: Studying long-tem effects of academic mobility to Germany, 1954-2000. Global Networks 9 (in press)
Jöns, H. (2007) Transnational Mobility and the Spaces of Knowledge Production: A Comparison of Global Patterns, Motivations and Collaborations in Different Academic Fields. Social Geography 2 (2), 97-114
Jöns, H. (2005) Academic Mobility and Collaboration Across the Atlantic: Experiences in the Humanities and the Social Sciences, in Humboldt-Foundation (ed.) What Factors Impact the Internationalization of Scholarship in the Humanities and Social Sciences? Bonn: Humboldt Foundation, 7-24
Jöns, H. and Meusburger, P. (2005) Internationaler Wissenschaftsaustausch, in Institut für Länderkunde (ed.) Nationalatlas Bundesrepublik Deutschland: Deutschland in der Welt. Heidelberg: Elsevier Spektrum Akademischer Verlag, 116-119. ISBN 3-8274-0965-9
Jöns, H. (2004) Von Down Under nach Up Above und zurück: Australische Wissenschaftler/-innen zu Gast in der BR Deutschland, 1953-2002. GASt Newsletter 18, 32-48
Jöns, H. (2003) Balancing Academic Sponsorship and Foreign Cultural Policy: An Interpretation of Five Decades of Humboldt Foundation Sponsorship Data. Humboldt Kosmos 81, 32-41
c. Transnational Networks of Oxford and Cambridge Universities in the 20th Century
This most recent project looks at transnational linkages of the two renowned British Universities of Oxford and Cambridge and thus aims to move beyond the national perspective dominant in most research on academic networks. While academic travel remains a focus, the project considers other connections as well, including the ways in which both universities sought to use honorary degrees to establish new international ‘alliances’ within and beyond the academic world.
Key publications
Jöns, H (2008) Academic Travel from Cambridge University and the Formation of Centres of Knowledge, 1885-1954. Journal of Historical Geography 34 (2), 338-362
Heffernan, M. and Jöns, H. (2007) Degrees of Influence: The Politics of Honorary Degrees in the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, 1900-2000. Minerva: A Review of Science, Learning and Policy 45 (4), 389-416
3) Actor-Network Theory and Geographic Thought
Exploring the nature of academic travel in different disciplines, I became interested in the types of entities responsible for knowledge production and in the ways in which they shape the geographies of different scientific practices. This resulted in a critical interrogation of recent debates about social constructivism and actor-network theory in science studies and geography and of the question in which ways a geographical perspective on scientific practice and interaction may shed a different light on these debates.
Key publications
Jöns, H. (2006) Dynamic Hybrids and the Geographies of Technoscience: Discussing Conceptual Resources Beyond the Human/Non-Human Binary. Social and Cultural Geography 7 (4), 559-580
Jöns, H. (2003) Mensch-Umwelt-Beziehungen aus einer erweiterten Akteursnetzwerkperspektive, in Meusburger, P. and Schwan, T. (eds) Humanökologie: Ansätze zur Überwindung der Natur-Kultur-Dichotomie. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 101-137. ISBN 3-515-08377-4
Jöns, H. (2003) Von Menschen und Dingen: Konstruktiv-kritische Anmerkungen zum (a)symmetrischen Akteurskonzept der Akteursnetzwerktheorie, in Hasse, J. and Helbrecht, I. (eds) Menschenbilder in der Humangeographie. Oldenburg: BIS-Verlag, 109-142. ISBN 3-8142-0826-9
4) Miscellaneous
a. European Centres of Interaction in the Middle Ages
Jöns, H. and Köchling-Dietrich, R. (2002) Interaktionszentren und Kontaktnetze im Mittelalter, in Institut für Länderkunde (ed.) Nationalatlas Bundesrepublik Deutschland: Bildung und Kultur. Heidelberg: Spektrum Akademischer Verlag, 144-147. ISBN 3-8274-0947-0
b. Geographies of Bank Branch Networks in Hungary
Jöns, H. (2001) Foreign Banks Are Branching Out: Changing Geographies of Hungarian Banking, 1987-1999, in Meusburger, P. and Jöns, H. (eds) Transformations in Hungary: Essays in Economy and Society. Physica-Verlag: Heidelberg, 65-124. ISBN 3-7908-1412-1
Jöns, H. and Klagge, B. (1997) Bankwesen und Regionalstruktur in Ungarn: Eine Analyse der Filialnetzstrukturen und -strategien aus regionalwirtschaftlicher Perspektive. Wien: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. 77 pp. ISBN 3-7001-2677-8
c. Theories and Practices of Representation
Hoyler, M. and Jöns, H. (2005) Themenorte vernetzt gedacht: Reflexionen über iconoclashes und den Umgang mit Repräsentationen in der Geographie, in Flitner, M. and Lossau, J. (eds) Themenorte. Münster: LIT Verlag, 183-200. ISBN 3-8258-7466-4
d. Biographical Interviews
Freytag, T. and Jöns, H. (2005) Vision and the Cultural in Geography: A Biographical Interview with Denis Cosgrove. Die Erde 136 (3), 205-216
Hoyler, M., Freytag, T. and Jöns, H. (2004) Technology, Organization, Territory: A Biographical Interview with Michael Storper. Zeitschrift für Wirtschaftsgeographie 48 (1), 63-72
Hoyler, M., Freytag, T. and Jöns, H. (2002) Geographical Traditions, Science Studies, and Biography: A Conversation with David N. Livingstone, in Science, Space and Hermeneutics. Hettner Lecture 2001. Heidelberg: Department of Geography, 77-98. ISBN 3-88570-505-2
List of all publications (PDF)
Editorships
Editorial Board Member of the Journal Social Geography
Teaching
Year 1
Practising Geography (human geography lectures)
Geographies of Global Economic Change (seminars)
Geographies of Identity (seminars) Tutorials
Year 2
The Geography of the Knowledge Economy (course convenor)
Researching Human Geographies (course convenor)
Year 3
Mediterranean Rural Spaces Fieldcourse - Central Crete
MSc in Global Transformations
Globalization and Society
Administrative Responsibilities
Departmental Disability Officer
BSc Geography-Economics Programme Tutor
Other Responsibilities
Secretary, History and Philosophy of Geography Research Group of the Royal Geographical Society
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