In the interest of disclosure, I sit on the Executive Committee of the Environmental Studies Section of ISA and I'm the Chair of the Professional Development Committee of AESS. And I travel quite a lot for field research and other academic workshops, so I am hardly an unbiased commenter. I do buy carbon offsets, though (this in no way makes me any less responsible for my carbon emissions, but at least I do try to offset and reduce them).
I sit on the side of "there are very significant benefits to meeting face-to-face rather than online". I do a lot of online (WebEx, GoToMeeting, Skype, FaceTime) meetings, and with the rare exception of (OMG, a non-Jobs fan about to gush) FaceTime, I find almost every single model of non-face-to-face meeting sorely lacking. I wrote a defense of large-scale conferences a while ago http://www.raulpacheco.org/2014/04/in-defense-of-large-academic-conferences-my-post-isa2014-reflections/ Like DG, I combine my large-scale academic conferences with fieldwork (as I did in Japan with IASC 2013, Uruguay with CLAD 2013, Toronto with ISA 2014 and Madrid with GIGAPP 2014). I also try to go to way fewer conferences than I used to do. But it's always important to keep it in mind. On the personal side of things, there are quite a lot of downsides to extensive academic travel. I also wrote about that. http://www.raulpacheco.org/2013/11/the-downsides-of-academic-travel/ Thanks for the reminder! Best, Raul _____________________________________________________________________ Dr. Raul Pacheco-Vega Assistant Professor, Public Administration Division Centro de Investigacion y Docencia Economicas, A.C (CIDE, A.C.) Campus Región Centro Circuito Tecnopolo Norte S/N, Col. Hacienda Nueva Aguascalientes, Ags. 20313, Mexico Tel. (+52-449) 994-5150 x 5196 Cel. (+52-449) 280-2484 Website <http://www.raulpacheco.org> - Twitter <http://www.twitter.com/raulpacheco> - Facebook <http://www.facebook.com/drpachecovega> - CIDE webpage <http://cide.edu/investigador/profile.php?IdInvestigador=1266> Read my publications: On Academia.Edu <http://cide.academia.edu/RaulPachecoVega> On ResearchGate <https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Raul_Pacheco-vega> On Mendeley <http://www.mendeley.com/profiles/raul-pacheco-vega/> My citations: Available on Google Scholar <http://scholar.google.com/citations?user=7mn6g3oAAAAJ&hl=en> Associate Editor, Journal of Environmental Sciences and Studies <http://link.springer.com/journal/13412> On Sun, Dec 7, 2014 at 10:27 AM, Ronnie Lipschutz <[email protected]> wrote: > Oops! There's that old collective action problem again: I contribute so > little that my stopping would hardly matter. > > I know there are people looking into conferencing with robots. You get to > control your little unit, complete with camera, video screen, card printer > and alcohol denaturer at sites kitted out for remote conferencing. No > extortionate hotel rooms, no high-priced cookies and no air travel torture. > Hallway encounters are still possible (although bedroom encounters are not). > > Of course the life cycle emissions of such a system would be fairly great, > but this is a "reusable" arrangement that can be used again and again. I > admit it's not like face-to-face encounters, but... > > Best, > > Ronnie > > Ronnie > > On Sat, Dec 6, 2014 at 7:53 PM, Wil Burns <[email protected]> wrote: > >> OK, Paul, I'll bite on this topic, especially since you've raised it to >> me in my role as President of the Association of Environmental Studies & >> Sciences in the past. At the risk of being subsequently castigated by you >> as one of those people living in "willful ignorance," I'd respond as >> follows: >> >> 1. A recent study pegged the CO2 emissions associated with the annual >> presentation of ALL scientific papers at 0.003% of total annual travel >> emissions ( >> http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0066508). >> Dare I say that total suspension of Environmental Studies/GEP conference >> travel would be little more than a symbolic gesture? >> 2. While you minimize the value of face to face interactions with >> scholars, and indicate that electronic means of interaction would yield >> commensurate results, I think that's a bit simplistic. Undoubtedly, we all >> could sit in our offices and watch each other make conference presentations >> on Skype. However, some of the most productive time that I've spent at >> conferences has been chatting in the hallways, and yes, bars, with >> colleagues, deriving new insights on environmental issues, hatching crazy >> schemes that sometimes come to fruition and may prove beneficial in some >> small ways. These are often happenstance encounters that I daresay would >> not occur in the halcyonic virtual world you sketch out in your posting; >> 3. Yes, young scholars often do spend a lot of time on their iphones and >> other electronic devices, but for me that’s yet another justification for >> in-person conferences. Such events help us to convey our passion for the >> field, our humanity, in ways that speaking to each other on a screen will >> never convey. Conferences are also a critical venue for networking for >> young people that can never totally be substituted for electronically; >> 4. Every effort should be made to reduce the carbon footprint of >> conferences. AESS has a committee researching such approaches, as does many >> other organizations. What these efforts can communicate to our students, >> and to the public, is that we're a microcosm of society, i.e. our >> activities do impose a carbon footprint, but every effort should be made to >> reduce it; >> 5. A reasonable compromise in this context might be to have a serious >> discussion about reducing the incidence of conferences, perhaps every other >> year, for example? In the end, however, I can't help but believe that a >> total cessation of conferences would do little for the environment while >> robbing our field of its life's blood, which is real world interaction and >> collaboration. >> >> >> wil >> >> >> Dr. Wil Burns, President, AESS >> Co-Executive Director, Forum for Climate Engineering Assessment >> A Scholarly Initiative of the School of International Service, American >> University >> 2650 Haste Street, Towle Hall #G07 >> Berkeley, CA 94720 >> 650.281.9126 (Phone) >> http://www.dcgeoconsortium.org >> >> Skype ID: Wil.Burns >> Blog: Teaching Climate/Energy Law & Policy, >> http://www.teachingclimatelaw.org >> >> -----Original Message----- >> From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf >> Of HARRIS, Paul >> Sent: Saturday, December 06, 2014 7:02 PM >> To: [email protected] >> Subject: [gep-ed] Virtues of academic conferences >> >> At long last, someone in a position to do something has admitted that >> scholars/teachers jetting around to conferences is morally questionable >> (not least because today's information technologies allow far more >> collaboration than was possible at conferences even quite recently): >> >> >> http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/06/us/setting-aside-a-scholarly-get-together-for-the-planets-sake.html?ref=earth&_r=0 >> >> It will be interesting to see where this goes. Will it overcome the >> willful ignorance of so many scholars -- those who think that THEIR work is >> so vital as to justify conference travel -- that such voluntary behavior is >> contributing, albeit perhaps in individually small ways, to profound human >> suffering and death in the future through climate change? Even a tiny >> contribution to someone else's death seems to call into question conference >> travel (and most other travel, at least by auto or airplane). >> >> I've broached this topic on this list several times over the years, so I >> realize that it's not likely to get any traction, and that there will be >> all sorts of excuses for continuing business as usual (“How dare you deny >> young scholars the right to collaborate” [these are the same young scholars >> who collaborate 24/7 on their iPhones, etc.]; “Collaborating via video >> conferencing [etc.] just isn’t the same as talking in person” [but there’s >> evidence that collaborating remotely can result in more scholarly >> productivity] – that sort of thing). >> >> ISA, APSA and all of the other big academic associations, including those >> devoted to environmental issues, seem to have conferences as their core >> business models. They don’t want to change. And we scholars don’t help. We >> love our conferences, right? And we, like most people, always want to leave >> it to others, probably people in the future, or governments or >> corporations, to change things. Of course we don't think about it >> consciously (so as to avoid guilt, maybe), but our attitude seems to >> something along the lines of "I teach about environmental solutions, so I >> don't have to be part of them myself," or, even more powerfully, "My >> research shows that institutions matter more than individuals, so I can >> justify living as I do." How many decades more will scholars take these and >> similar views, and continue to set the wrong example? >> >> I wonder what our students, particularly those who study climate change, >> think each time we jet off to a conference? The word “hypocrite” instantly >> comes to mind. >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "gep-ed" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to [email protected]. >> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. >> >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "gep-ed" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to [email protected]. >> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. >> > > > > -- > Ronnie D. Lipschutz > Professor & Chair of Politics; Provost of College 8 > UC Santa Cruz > 1156 High St. Santa Cruz, CA 95064 > e-mail: [email protected] > phone: 831-459-3275/459-2543 > web site: > http://politics.ucsc.edu/faculty/singleton.php?&singleton=true&cruz_id=rlipsch > > *"Nothing in the world...is as old as what was futuristic in the past."* > (Ben Lerner, *10:04*, p. 152) > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "gep-ed" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "gep-ed" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
