indeed, institutional rules, contexts, incentive structures differ
widely, to say the least. and Ferhana brought that point clearly to me.
(this seems to be at times under-appreciated when intellectuals from
dictatorial and murderous regimes produce work that may not have the
same priorities as those of academics used to more freedom of
expression, as limited as it may be - e.g., the cases of Norman
Finkelstein and Ward Churchill in the US)
also excellent point, Jonas. i am in the US, where there is no REA, and
i doubt it would even be feasible, as universities are rather more
decentralised, but there is the elementary publishable unit problem and
grant applications (i.e., money begging) for research projects that push
research academics (luckily, not me, i am in a small college and hence
will probably not ever see my name in lights! thankfully, too...) into
perhaps not very worthwhile activities politically or ecologically. and
all just to get or keep an academic job at a university.
i like the ideas expressed by Jamie as well; good to endeavour to foster
a sense of community, when possible, and conferences can be used as
sites through which solidarity networks are established and also
alliances to achieve certain goals, like general strikes, ecologically
sensible practices, etc. let us do more of that. and i know this is
being and has been done already, but the issue of consumption patterns
could be a springboard for additional forms of solidarity to help us
collectively consume less without jeopardising our livelihoods, and
hence health. not sure in practice how exactly yet.
i very much doubt that academics, even on aggregate, make much of a dent
in terms of CO2 (or swollen feet) compared to the aggregate of business
travellers, who are compelled by other (overlapping with ours) social
forces/institutional arrangements. In the end, i still find it unhelpful
to individualise the problem of CO2 emissions (and also any accusatory
tones about consumption patterns, as Jamie points out) for many reasons,
like disregarding the context of our daily lives that require different
types and amounts of resources being used without even our knowledge or
consent (right, one can always opt out of eating processed food, too!),
creating or reproducing resentments and divisions among us (i have
unfortunately contributed to this on occasion, and i hope to have made
amends), etc. I think all involved in this discussion do what they/we
can (and i mean us academics, education and/or research workers) under
given circumstances that are hardly created by us and often hardly
conducive to ecologically sensible lifeways, for reasons mostly out of
our control. i hope to be right in this assumption. i bike when i can to
campus, under very risky road conditions (very hilly terrain, no bike
lane, hardly any side space, no pedestrian pavement), but then i cannot
ride the bike if i am taking my child somewhere or if it rains or snows,
unless i want to risk my life or both mine and my child's. this is a
situation i can try to change by getting the municipality to provide
infrastructure for bikers in my neighbourhood all the way to campus. i
would not be the first, apparently. wish me luck even finding the time
for such a struggle...
saed
coolie wrote:
> saed: yes, that's a good one: but i'm struggling to translate this
> discussion to a swedish setting...
>
> jamie: not being a big conference jet-setter, but when i want to visit
> a conference overseas (outside scandinavia, by air travel) i usually
> put in one-two weeks of vacation after the event to have a look around
> that place. for me and some of my travel companions, it has been a way
> of digesting and sorting out the montgolfiers from the really moving
> stuff, so to speak. this won't help the climate that much, but it
> makes me very picky about which conferences i choose and can afford to
> go to. (slow career suicide?)
>
> cheers,
> jonas
>
> –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
> Jonas R Bylund, PhD
> Dept. of Human Geography
> Stockholm University
>
> [log in to unmask]
>
> http://people.su.se/~jbylu/
>
>
> On 2007-09-05, at 18.34, Jamie Heckert wrote:
>
> My responses to various posts on this thread:
>
> Ecological footprint -- I keep wondering whether this metaphor acts as
> a form of medicalisation (i.e., individualising and possibly
> shame-inducing) -- "Hey, your footprint is swollen! What have you been
> doing? What can you do to bring that down?"
>
> I'm in full agreement that collective action is necessary to bring
> about a climate stability (among other benefits) -- I LOVE the idea of
> a general strike on the RAE! At the same time, individual behavioural
> change is part of the process. It seems to me, in my reading and
> practice in sexual health as well as in collective organising and
> interpersonal relationships, that people are more likely to listen and
> show empathy for others' concerns ( e.g., a desire for climate
> stability) after they have been listened to and received empathy for
> their own needs (e.g., appreciation, connection, community, security,
> etc.) Telling people they are doing it wrong (e.g. driving or flying)
> often triggers feelings of guilt or shame ( e.g., from needing
> connection), or anger (e.g., needing autonomy -- "don't tell me what
> to do") and rarely encourage either behaviour change or the sense of
> connection needed to support collective organisation.
>
> It seems to me that people in academia travel to conferences for a
> number of reasons besides just career advancement: e.g., to feel a
> sense of community, to be listened to, to be stimulated by discussion
> on topics of shared interest, etc. I wonder what other strategies
> people doing scholarly work could do to both meet these needs and to
> support climate stability? Teleconferencing has been mentioned as one
> (especially great idea of combining with a local conference so people
> get face-to-face contact!). Another idea might be find ways to engage
> with people in the local area who might share an interest in
> particular topics if not the academic training. This might offer new
> perspectives from those outside of a field, support academics in their
> capacity to communicate with others, and nurture a sense of community
> and empowerment through knowledge/skill sharing.
>
> Why might you want to do this or something like it? Well, how many
> many of us have experienced the post-conference blues? (I was really
> relieved to discover, only after attending many conferences, that this
> was a common experience; for a long-time I thought it was just me.)
> Perhaps the temporary (pseudo?) community of the conference experience
> indicates the real need for community in everyday life. Maybe
> promoting climate stability isn't about what we have to give up, but
> what we have to gain. What do you like about conferences? Is there
> something there that you could bring into your everyday life?
>
> Another idea I've had for collective action is finding ways to support
> people to spend more time in an area when/if they do travel for a
> conference. I'm thinking of the Anarchist Studies conference I'm
> helping to plan for next year in the UK; rather than asking people not
> to come from far away, could groups form to facilitate speaking tours,
> accommodation, invitations to participate in local discussions or
> other actions?
>
> I'd love to here others' thoughts on how to shift (academic) culture
> to support climate stability.
>
> Yours,
> Jamie
>
> [NB: This e-mail is influenced by ecopsychology & non-violent
> communication (NVC)]
--
Salvatore Engel-Di Mauro
Department of Geography, SUNY New Paltz
1 Hawk Drive, New Paltz, NY 12561
tel: 1/845/2572991, fax: 1/845/2572992
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
Senior Editor
Capitalism Nature Socialism: A Journal of Ecosocialism
Editor
ACME: An international e-journal for critical geographies
http://www.acme-journal.org/
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