Archiv der Kategorie: Life & work in academia

Flying in Academia and the climate crisis II

Since I wrote a first post about flying in academia almost a year ago, the discussion has spread widely. We have started to collect ideas on how to make our own research more climate-friendly, in my own institution and among researchers from the social science and humanities in Berlin. In this debate it has been helpful and inspiring what other institutions and people do or try out. I present here some links, blog posts and articles related to this debate and the points they are making.

People in academia (who) fly less

There are several movements of researchers worldwide declaring that they will stop flying or fly less. Apart from the Commitment not to fly for less than 1000 km that over 4000 scientists from Germany, Austria and Switzerland have signed (and that also calls for a change in federal law concerning the reimbursement of travel costs!), there are similar movements in the other parts of the world.

Flying in Academia and the climate crisis II weiterlesen

Streik in Frankreich gegen neues Forschungsgesetz

Seit Dezember streiken in Frankreich weite Teile der Arbeiter:innen und Angestellten, von der Bahn über die Schulen bis zu Museen und Operhäusern. Der Protest richtet sich gegen die Rentenreform von Präsident Emmanuel Macron, der sich bisher geweigert hat, die Reform aufzugeben und nur zu einzelnen Zugeständnissen bereit war.

Angesichts der heftigen Mobilisierung gegen die Rentenreform ist weitgehend untergegangen, dass die französische Regierung auch ein neues Forschungsgesetz vorbereitet: Dieses soll die Wissenschaft “wettbewerbsfähiger” machen, will heißen liberalisieren und flexibilisieren. Anders als in Deutschland oder Großbritannien, wo die Universitäts- und Forschungslandschaft bereits in den letzten zwei Dekaden komplett umgekrempelt und zusammengespart wurde, und prekäre Verhältnisse insbesondere für Nachwuchswissenschafter:innen heute die Norm sind, sind in Frankreichs Wissenschaftssystem bisher unbefristete Verträge und die Grundfinanzierung der Forscher:innen die Norm.

Streik in Frankreich gegen neues Forschungsgesetz weiterlesen

#klimastreik

Anläßlich des Klimastreiks am 20. September – das jüngst veröffentlichte Video von Scientists4Future. Danke an alle, die dazu beigetragen haben!

Die internationale Stellungnahme von S4F kann weiterhin hier unterzeichnet werden. Wir sehen uns morgen auf den Straßen oder in den kommenden Tagen bei der Globalen Aktionswoche gegen die Klimakrise!

Fliegen in Wissenschaft und Klimakrise

Flying in academia and the climate crisis – english version here

Seit bald einem Jahr streiken jeden Freitag Schüler*innen für mehr Klimaschutz – das hat auch in der Wissenschaftslandschaft einiges ins Rollen gebracht. Auch Wissenschaftler*innen haben begonnen, die eigenen Strukturen in Bezug auf Klimaschutz zu hinterfragen – auch, wenn es ums Fliegen geht.

Wissenschaftler*innen gehören zu denjenigen, die viel fliegen, mehr noch als andere Gutverdiener. Wer in einem internationalen Forschungsumfeld arbeitet, wo Konferenzen auch mal in China, den USA oder Australien stattfinden, fliegt  auch mal für wenige Tage Tausende von Kilometern, um einen Vortrag zu halten oder anzuhören. Und das wird nicht nur bezahlt, sondern erwartet – von Institutionen, die stolz sind auf ihre Internationalität, von künftigen Arbeitgeber*innen, die internationale Vernetzung erwarten.

Fliegen in Wissenschaft und Klimakrise weiterlesen

Flying in Academia and the climate crisis I

Since almost a year students are demonstrating every Friday for actions adressing global warming. This has led to the creation of new networks, like Scientists for Future (S4F), supporting this movement, but also to new discussion within academia about our  own climate impact.

CO2 emmissions are directly related to income, and those working in acadamia certainly belong to the ones flying much more than the average employee. Especially those who are working in an international research environment, conferences taking place in Italy, in China, the USA, Australia, will often fly overseas just to hold a talk or attend a conference. Longtime, this was not really questioned, on the contrary many universities encouraged their staff to present and travel abroad, to foster the ‘internationalization’ of the university. Even universities who praise themselves as eco-friendyl or even carbon neutral, like the university of Lüneburg, often excluded the flights of their staff from their calculations, or, simply ‘neutralized’ them with buying offsets (a method that, as many studies have shown, is not just not working, but also has deteriorating effects in countries of the global south – apart from being part highly problematic in term of environmental justice). 

Flying in Academia and the climate crisis I weiterlesen

Breaking the (pay)wall

Why is it so expensive to access the results of publicly-funded research – a fact that makes research much more difficult if not inpossible in remote areas or poor countries? A new documentary shows the role of publishers in “business of scholarhips” works – and a new initiative by european research institutions tries to save the concept of open access

When I started studying many years ago, I read, like many others, the book about how to write a thesis by Umberto Eco. The book, written in the 1970s, deals with the problem of how to access the literature necessary to write about a specific topic – and is shows that it was very common thiry years ago that students or researchers had to travel all over the country (or even to another country) to search the libraries for the books and articles they needed. While this may still be true for people working on very special topics or doing research in archives, for most others, with the technical development of the last decades, this could indeed be over.

It could. From a technical point of view, it would be no problem to access research articles from all over the world even in the smallest library. But in fact, the opposite is true. A few days ago I talked to a friend living in a remote area of Europe, with no bigger city around – to get access to the research paper she needs for work and research, she actually still has to travel by train or plane to the next university city or even the capital – because just these librairies have access to the journals she needs, and because they can not open to remote-access. People living in poorer countries, with not public librairies or more-or-less well-founded universities around may not even have the chance to do so.

Breaking the (pay)wall weiterlesen