Engaging with geoscientists’ conference mobility: a living lab approach

Conference attendance forms a key part of academic life (Arsenault et al. 2019; Lassen 2022) and scholars of science have pointed to its functions for individual careers as well as for advancing knowledge production and integration Yet mega-conferences, such as EGU, constitute a significantly carbon-intensive aspect of scientific work, with estimates that the American counterpart, AGU, has a carbon footprint similar to that of the city of Edinburgh in one week (Klöwer et al. 2020). Advocating for sustainable transformations while simultaneously relying on air travel for mobility thus exposes academia, and especially climate scientists, to accusations of hypocrisy (Dey and Russell 2022, Nordhagen et al. 2014). How do geoscientists navigate the dilemma created by the competing demands of attending conferences for their scholarly, social, and professional development and their desire to lead an exemplary pathway?

By using the space of this session at EGU as a ‘living lab’, we as social scientists want to engage with geoscientists, gather their perceptions of academic travel and reflect on their own position in this incongruous mode of knowledge exchange. We will employ interactive methodologies such as Mentimeter mini-surveys and focused discussions to introduce reflective questions that geoscientists can ask themselves regarding the sociocultural aspects of conference attendance, the perceived impact on academic reputation, the challenges faced by early career scientists, and the complex navigation of the environmental tensions associated with high carbon footprint meetings. This contribution is informed by a research project that studies and compares academic conference and travel cultures across disciplines.  

References

Arsenault, Julien; Talbot, Julie; Boustani, Lama; Gonzalès, Rodolphe; Manaugh, Kevin (2019): The environmental footprint of academic and student mobility in a large research-oriented university. In Environ. Res. Lett. 14 (9), p. 95001. DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/ab33e6.

Colin Dey; Shona Russell (2022): Still Flying in the Face of Low-carbon Scholarship? A Final Call for the CSEAR Community to Get on Board. In Social and Environmental Accountability Journal 42 (3), pp. 208–222. DOI: 10.1080/0969160X.2022.2094983.

Klöwer, Milan; Hopkins, Debbie; Allen, Myles; and Higham, James (2020): An analysis of ways to decarbonize conference travel after COVID-19. In Nature 583, pp. 356–359. DOI: 10.5281/ZENODO.3553784.

Lassen, Claus (2022): Aeromobilities and Academic Work. In Kristian Bjørkdahl (Ed.): Academic Flying and the Means of Communication. With assistance of Adrian Santiago Franco Duharte. Singapore: Springer Singapore Pte. Limited, pp. 269–296.

Nordhagen, Stella; Calverley, Dan; Foulds, Chris; O’Keefe, Laura; Wang, Xinfang (2014): Climate change research and credibility: balancing tensions across professional, personal, and public domains. In Climatic Change 125 (2), pp. 149–162. DOI: 10.1007/s10584-014-1167-3.