Reconciling collaboration in high-performance research groups in the scientific-academic field

Abstract

The scientific-academic field and the organization of research groups have been deeply transformed and made more complex, leading researchers to experience tensions and contradictions in terms of interdependence/autonomy and verticality/horizontality. In this article we address how scientists manage these tensions, through a discursive analysis of semi-structured interviews with members of high-performance Spanish research groups from different disciplines and levels, combined with ethnographic observations. We focus on how the subject of work, both individual and collective, is articulated, studying the use of pronouns and other terms that represent the group. We argue that, despite its collaborative nature, the group is considered as a framework in which individuals work independently and, occasionally, converge. Factors such as the professional trajectories and position of members in the team, age difference and the spatial organization of the groups affect the expressive attachment to more or less collective forms of collaboration.