Issue 2026, 1: WORLDS APART, STRUGGLES ALIKE Early-career academics in Albania and Sweden
Early-career academics (ECAs) generally experience insecure employment conditions, intense competition for research funding, and limited access to effective mentorship. Postdoctoral career pathways are marked by uncertainty and precarity, with short-term contracts and high expectations for research output, teaching, and administrative work. Drawing on interviews with ECAs in Sweden and Albania, this essay identifies a striking convergence in their experiences despite substantial differences in national academic systems. The findings suggest that these difficulties are not merely country-specific but reflect broader structural characteristics of contemporary European academia. The persistence of such conditions highlights a systemic disconnect between doctoral training and sustainable academic careers, pointing to the need for reforms that promote long-term career stability and healthier research environments. The essay also reveals differences between Albanian and Swedish ECAs’ career aspirations and experiences of gender equality.
Baltic Worlds covers; the Baltic Sea Region, Eastern Europe, Russia, CentralAsia, Caucasus and the Balkan area.