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Short abstract:

Air travel is increasingly discussed in the context of carbon emissions. However, the move to reform academic conferences towards less physical copresence comes into conflict with academic travel cultures that traditionally value face-to-face interaction.

Long abstract:

As air travel is increasingly discussed in the context of its carbon emissions since the turn of the millennium, academic air travel, i.e. short-term mobility practices in academia involving flying, has become the subject of a growing critical and self-reflective discourse in academia and higher education administration. While not a SIM in the strict sense, a community of academic activists, researchers, transdisciplinary actors and higher education administration professionals has emerged which aims at reforming the way academic conferences are conducted with the overall aim to reduce academic air travel. Concerns around academic air travel (AAT) navigate a multitude of tensions and ambivalences around the role of conferences in science: namely, science as a universal vs. local practice, the obligation for individual academics to “fly or die”, and the tension between epistemological, professional and social benefits of academic exchange on the one hand and issues of access to AAT and AAT’s deleterious environmental impacts on the other hand. The activism around AAT can be seen as part of the collective action streak in science, and is here presented as a case study. In advocacy around AAT reform, a key factor that has been recognised in the literature are disciplinary differences both regarding the level of politicisation and moralisation of air travel. For example, while researchers in the climate sciences are among the most vocal in arguing for air travel reduction, they are also among the most frequent academic fliers. The presentation reports on a workshop/focus group discussion at the EGU.