Human Infrastructure as Process and Effect: Its Impact on Individual Scientists' Participation in International Collaboration

Abstract

We adopt the concept of human infrastructure as our analytic lens to examine two high energy physics collaborations. Our analysis goes beyond the macro level of virtual organizations to include the human infrastructures in scientists' home institutions and personal networks. While previous literature tends to focus on the macro level of analysis of management and coordination within virtual organizations, our study concentrates on individual scientists, especially junior scientists' gains and challenges when participating in international collaboration. We compare the experiences of scientists from lesser-resourced and well-resourced nations to examine how specific components of basic social structures enable or impede individual scientists' participation in international collaboration. Identifying the social mechanisms that constrain scientists will enable us to better understand how to build human infrastructure to facilitate individual scientists' participation in collaboration.