Reducing Academic Flying
A symposium on research and action, University of Sheffield, 13th November 2019.
How can we make Universities less dependent on air travel?
As Universities begin to face up to their responsibilities in the face of the climate emergency, cutting air travel is one of the quickest ways to make a big difference. But for academia, as for many professions, that is not straightforward. Key parts of University business and academic careers have become dependent on cheap and fast international travel.
An international symposium in Sheffield on the 13th of November brought together leading researchers into academic and business flight, as well as people with experience of initiatives that help to reduce flight dependence. Ten papers came from academics attending the event in Sheffield physically from across the UK, and attending remotely from Scandinavia, Australia and the USA. Around 30 people attended physically on the day, with around 80 attending remotely, from more than a dozen countries around the world.
The event was conceived and co-organised by Stephen Allen (Management) and Matt Watson (Geography) with help from Tom Foster (Elevate) and George Coiley (Politics).
As Universities begin to face up to their responsibilities in the face of the climate emergency, cutting air travel is one of the quickest ways to make a big difference. But for academia, as for many professions, that is not straightforward. Key parts of University business and academic careers have become dependent on cheap and fast international travel.
An international symposium in Sheffield on the 13th of November brought together leading researchers into academic and business flight, as well as people with experience of initiatives that help to reduce flight dependence. Ten papers came from academics attending the event in Sheffield physically from across the UK, and attending remotely from Scandinavia, Australia and the USA. Around 30 people attended physically on the day, with around 80 attending remotely, from more than a dozen countries around the world.
The event was conceived and co-organised by Stephen Allen (Management) and Matt Watson (Geography) with help from Tom Foster (Elevate) and George Coiley (Politics).
The meeting comprised three sessions, with 3-4 speakers in each:
The presentations, slides and speaker links are below, with thanks to all the speakers for sharing these.
These presentations are shared to stimulate discussion, but all materials remain copyright of the presenters. Please do not reuse them in any other way without permission.
- Conceptualising academic flying
- Reflections on initiatives for, and experiences of, flying-less
- Current studies and future research possibilities
The presentations, slides and speaker links are below, with thanks to all the speakers for sharing these.
These presentations are shared to stimulate discussion, but all materials remain copyright of the presenters. Please do not reuse them in any other way without permission.
In addition, there is a news item on the CNU blog, and two write-ups of the meeting, one by Annie Brookman-Byrne in The Psychologist and the other, focused on the technology used to run the meeting, by Tom Foster on the University of Sheffield's Digital Learning site, and an article in Experience Magazine interviewing Stephen Allen about the meeting and the issue of academic flying more broadly.
Session 1: Conceptualising academic flying
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Monika Buscher, Lancaster University, UK - ‘Why do we fly? A discussion of the compulsions and affordances of proximity and connected presence in academic work’
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Andrew Glover, RMIT, Australia (virtually) - 'Remoteness and air travel: Australian academics experience of flying for work'
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James Faulconbridge, Lancaster University, UK - 'Conceptualising demand for flying: the ‘synthetic situation’ of academic work'
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Session 2: Reflections on initiatives for, and experiences of, flying-less
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Joseph Nevins, Vassar, USA (virtually) - ‘Flying Less As Anti-Violence Practice'
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Sion Pickering, University of Edinburgh, UK - 'Improving data reporting and stakeholder engagement to support organisational change'
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Kim Nicholas, Lund University, Sweden (virtually) - 'Adopting, implementing, and scaling up an academic flying less policy: Lessons from Lund, Sweden'
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Renee Timmers, University of Sheffield, UK - 'A semi-virtual multi-hub conference format to reduce flying and increase inclusivity of academic conferences'
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Session 3: Current studies and future research possibilities
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Debbie Hopkins, University of Oxford, UK - 'The tyranny of distance? Academic air travel beyond Europe/America'
Stuart Capstick, Cardiff University, UK - ‘International survey research on the use of aviation by climate change researchers: who does it, and how can we reduce it?’
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Johan Gärdebo, KTH, Sweden (virtually) - 'The Travelling Scientist: How Academics Respond to Carbon-Intensive Scholarship in the Early Twenty-first Century'
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