Boundary work and normativity in research communication across time

ABSTRACT

This paper looks at how research communication in Norwegian migration and diversity research has changed over time. The main themes in the analysis are researchers’ motivations to enter the field and their experiences of, and reactions to, critique from colleagues and other audiences. Theory about credibility contests and boundary work on the interface of the academia and media, along with ideas about explicit and implicit normativity, inform the analysis. A main conclusion is that, as the field has matured, contests over normativity have changed from internal contests over implicit normativity to external charges of explicit normativity. The empirical analysis builds on 31 interviews with Norwegian researchers about their experiences of, and views on, public research communication in newspapers, social media, radio, TV and face-to-face panel debates. The interviewed researchers are of different age, gender, and ethnicity and they work in 10 different universities and research institutes across Norway.

KEYWORDS:

• Research communication
• implicit normativity
• explicit normativity
• boundary work
• migration and diversity
• science studies

Aknowledgements

Many thanks to the 31 Norwegian migration and diversity researchers who agreed to share their experiences from research communication with me. Thanks also to the anonymous reviewers and the editors of Identities for valuable comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.