Grappling with Climate Change and the Internationalization of Higher Education: An Eco-Socialist Perspective

Abstract

Universities worldwide have come to embrace the rhetoric of environmental sustainability and a commitment to climate action while simultaneously seeking to internationalize themselves within the context of the global economy. In seeking to internationalize, universities are highly dependent on air travel, for both their academic staff and students. Yet airplane flights are a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions and a driver of anthropogenic climate change. This article examines campaigns and individual efforts – with particular attention to examples from Australia and New Zealand and the field of anthropology - to reduce flying among academics, including a greater reliance on teleconferencing, and explores strategies for drastically reducing student air travel. In that the internationalization of higher education has been occurring within the parameters of global capitalism, which functions as the overarching driver of climate change, this article proposes an eco-socialist alternative as a strategy for achieving social justice and environmental sustainability.

Environmental Sustainability and Internationalization in Higher Education: A New Frontier in Research, Policy and Practice

“…From their perspective, not only is the physical health of the planet a casualty of these high carbon footprint events, but questions of social, political and economic justice and equity are also in play. The achievement of both social justice and environmental sustainability is also at the heart of the analysis brought forward by Baer (2023), whose article turns on the concept of eco-socialism. McCowan's contribution similarly highlights “two key dilemmas for internationalization”: “how to provide experiences of engagement with difference without burning fossil fuels” and “how to ensure global reach and influence of universities without homogenising and marginalising” (McCowan, 2023).…”