April 14, 2021 Working paper Open Access

Academic Air Travel. A Literature Review

Braun, Max; Rödder, Simone

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Abstract of Current Paper

Academic air travel (AAT) is increasingly critiqued for its carbon emissions. Based on an initial interest in the relevance, persistence and change of climate-impacting practices like AAT as part of global academic interaction and collaboration, this paper presents a literature review to take stock of existing research on AAT. A two-step literature search was conducted, resulting in a range of relevant publications (N=220). The following areas of interest were identified: first, the relevance that academic travel has in the development of the research university and the international connectivity of modern science. Second, functions of meetingness and physical copresence in the context of academic communication, scientific exchange and networking appear as the main drivers of AAT, yet characteristics of the academic career system and labour market as well as tourism aspects play a role, too. Third, discourses around AAT focus on the perceived obligation to fly (“fly or die”), its politicisation with regard to the inequality of access, and justifications for upholding current (pre Covid-19) rates of AAT. Fourth, AAT is increasingly critically discussed in the context of climate change (climatisation). Fifth, alternatives to AAT are discussed, ranging from the use of virtual meetings and the re-organisation of academic conferences to more fundamental changes in the mode of research practices. The review was started before the Covid-19 pandemic brought AAT to an abrupt halt, a situation that now makes researching this social practice particularly timely. We thus conclude that AAT is an emerging and promising area for future research.

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