Kicking the Habit

Abstract

Examining the hypermobility of many “elite” academic workers, this article situates mobility within the context of higher education and sustainability, decoloniality, and institutionalized expectations for academic travel. The mobility of HEI workers is described in relation to Anthropogenic climate change (ACC), which highlights the need for: (a) critical examination of and responses to the carbon footprint of academic workers; (b) exerting pressure to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) production associated with expected mobility; and (c) deliberate changes to professional mobility approaches that take into account issues of equity vis-à-vis knowledge production, the effects of ACC, and GHG production from academic air travel. We offer an instrument—in the form of queries—to provide starting points for individual deliberations and collective actions to begin addressing these three issue areas.

Stepping out of the ivory tower into fire and flood: Climate activism and the academy

“…This means lobbying for fossil fuel divestment, and the development of meaningful emissions plans by the institutions we work in and support. In addition, and importantly, 'Hypermobile Academic Elites' 65 must be prepared to forgo international air travel and its associated greenhouse gas emissions; here, a transformation of entrenched academic and personal practices and expectations is required. It is fortuitous that hybrid conferences and virtual meetings are now an accepted part of academic life, after two years of pandemic-related restrictions on travel.…”

Towards More Sustainable, Equitable and Just Internationalisation Practices: The Case of Internationalisation Conferences

“…As such, we cannot continue to ignore the impact international education is having on climate destruction (CANIE, 2022; Shields, 2019). To address this dilemma, universities need to align their internationalisation and sustainability agendas (Crumley-Effinger & Torres-Olave, 2021). When engaging both critically and deeply, justice considerations emerge.…”

“…We also need to consider how unequal international mobility in HE deepens inequities in knowledge production and dissemination. This includes consideration for greater equity regarding academic mobility and how its benefits are shared among scholars globally (Crumley-Effinger & Torres-Olave, 2021). The change emerging from this process must be based on social, epistemic and climate justice principles, which call for not only ‘green’ initiatives, but a consideration of how these initiatives and changes are addressing root causes of global climate and other socio-economic injustices and underlying vulnerabilities experienced by underprivileged communities across the world (Mattar et al, 2021).…”

“…Global inequities are due to historical and contemporary systems and structures of marginalisation and exploitation of people and the planet (Sultana, 2021a). A decolonial perspective on sustainability highlights that colonialism and capitalism are the primary causes of climate destruction (Crumley-Effinger & Torres-Olave, 2021), as the dominant global economic system relies heavily on the expropriation and exploitation of humans and the ecosystem (Stein & da Silva, 2020). In decolonial terms, those “on the receiving end of the underlying [neo]colonial processes generally experience these crises in more intense ways – as an amplification of existing patterns of violence and unsustainability” (Stein & da Silva, 2020, p. 556).…”

“…In this paper, we take an in-depth look at the literature on academic and staff mobility in HE and specifically focus on in-person internationalisation conferences attended by thousands of people working in and with HE, often on an annual basis. Many of these staff members can be considered hypermobile elites who frequently travel around the world for networking, marketing, recruitment, research and engagement (Baer, 2018; Klöwer et al, 2020; Crumley-Effinger & Torres-Olave, 2021; Climate Action Network for International Educators [CANIE], 2022). Higham and Xavier Font (2020, p. 3) point to the hypocrisy of such elites who tend to be “aware of the climate crisis and the contribution of air travel to the crisis, yet remain largely entrenched in their high-carbon aeromobility practices”.…”