Confronting the Climate Crisis: Slow Geographies and Relational Approaches to International Research

Abstract

Greenhouse gas emissions have continued to rise despite domestic and international efforts to mitigate climate change. Recent scholarship has expressed concerns that academic careers require considerable amounts of air travel. These trends raise a series of ethical dilemmas for academic geographers who conduct international field research. Building on work on slow geographies and slow scholarship, we argue for more relational approaches and understandings of the field, which could help to mitigate our travel emissions without requiring a full-scale end to international engagement. We propose four sociospatial iterations of the field as a terrain of interactions: the virtual field, the field at home, the field as a network, and the extended field of routes and journeys. Additionally, we argue that slow geographies of international field research must be paired with a transformation in our institutions, away from individualism and neoliberal metrics of productivity and toward more collective and relational approaches to both research and emissions.

尽管国内外都在努力缓解气候变化, 但温室气体排放量仍在持续上升。最近的学术研究, 已经表达了对学术生涯需要大量航空旅行的担忧。这些趋势, 给从事国际实地考察的地理学家带来了一系列的伦理困境。在慢地理和慢学术的研究基础上, 我们主张更多的实地关联方法和理解, 这有助于减少我们的旅行排放, 而不需要全面停止国际参与。我们提出了与实地交互的四种社会空间迭代：虚拟实地、家里的实地、网络实地、路线和旅程的拓展实地。此外, 我们认为, 国际实地考察的慢地理, 必须与机构转型相结合, 远离个人主义和新自由主义的学术成果衡量标准, 对研究和排放采取更合作、更关联的方式。

Las emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero han seguido en aumento a pesar de los esfuerzos domésticos e internacionales para mitigar el cambio climático. La erudición reciente ha expresado preocupaciones en el sentido de que las carreras académicas demandan considerables horas de viaje aéreo. Estas tendencias levantan una serie de dilemas éticos para los geógrafos académicos que conducen investigación de campo en el extranjero. Construyendo sobre trabajo relacionado con geografías y erudición lentas, formulo mi reclamo por enfoques y entendimientos más relacionales del campo, que podrían ayudar a mitigar nuestras emisiones por viajes sin que se requiera un final de escala plena en el compromiso internacional. Proponemos cuatro iteraciones socioespaciales del campo como un terreno de interacciones: el campo virtual, el campo en casa, el campo como una red y el campo extendido de rutas de viaje. Adicionalmente, nosotros sostenemos que las geografías lentas de investigación internacional de campo deben emparejarse con una transformación en nuestras instituciones, alejada del individualismo y la métrica neoliberal de productividad, y orientada hacia enfoques más colectivos y relacionales tanto para la investigación como para las emisiones.

Key Words:

• air travel
• climate change
• ethics
• field work
• international research

关键词:

• 航空旅行
• 气候变化
• 伦理学
• 实地考察
• 国际研究。

Palabras clave:

• cambio climático
• ética
• investigación internacional
• trabajo de campo
• viaje aéreo

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ashley Fent

ASHLEY FENT is a Postdoctoral Fellow in Geography at Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY 12604. E-mail: [email protected]. Her research focuses on political ecology analyses of mining, conservation, and solar energy in West Africa.

Christine Gibb

CHRISTINE GIBB is an Assistant Professor in the School of International Development and Global Studies at the University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON K1N 6N5, Canada. E-mail: [email protected]. Her research interests include environmental migration, vulnerability, gender, and disasters.

Sachiko Ishihara

SACHIKO ISHIHARA is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Social and Economic Geography at Uppsala University, Uppsala 75120, Sweden. E-mail: [email protected]. Her research interests include the motivations and experiences of people who move to the countryside in Japan and their role in sustainable rural development in the postgrowth context.

Joseph Holler

JOSEPH HOLLER is an Assistant Professor in the Geography Department at Middlebury College, Middlebury VT 05443. E-mail: [email protected]. His research interests include vulnerability and adaptation to climate change and natural hazards and open source GIScience.

William G. Moseley

WILLIAM G. MOSELEY is DeWitt Wallace Professor of Geography, and Director of the Program for Food, Agriculture & Society, at Macalester College, St. Paul, MN 55105. E-mail: [email protected]. His research interests include political ecology, food security, tropical agriculture, development, and Africa.