1. — The Absent Presence of Academic Aeromobility
Andrew Glover
Yolande Strengers
Tania Lewis

2. Introduction
Assumptions about embodied presence for knowledge sharing & networking
Bodily co-presence often requires being mobile, usually via air travel
Impacts on environment (carbon emissions & fossil fuels), economy (cost of air travel), equity (excludes those unable to fly)

3. Absent Presence
Scholarship on virtual communication/ collaboration focuses on replicating the experience of physical co-presence - particularly of eyes & face (Urry, Jensen)
Absent presence focuses on absences created / associated with this preoccupation with presence
What is materially & symbolically absent when we assume that physical co-present bodies are essential for collaboration?

4. SUPP Work Life Ecologies
Analysis of Australian university sustainability policies & research strategies
Survey of Australian academics about air travel & non-flying alternatives
In-depth interviews with academics about experiences of air travel, conferences, & networking online / offline
Ethnographic work on ‘digital conferencing’ & remote collaboration

5. Absent Presence of Mobility in Policy
Australian university sustainability policies lack a viable strategy for reducing air travel emissions
Strategic plans are often oriented toward internationalisation of research, teaching & learning, and funding
Air travel generally not recognised in health policies

6. Absent Presence of Mobility in Policy
Expectations of regular air travel for academic success
Normalisation of air travel in academic practice, aligns with policy
Air travel has an invisible or absent presence in university policies

7. Mobility in Academia
Demands (guided by policy) on academics to travel to conferences & meetings
Academics are seen as needing a ‘presence’ at significant events for exposure, engagement – network capital
Difficulty of non-physical presence at events where bodily presence is normalised

8. “I find that the relationship building stuff is far more important
“I find that the relationship building stuff is far more important. I am quite well known for going to conferences and not actually going to the conference but doing a hell of a lot of work in the process, because you’re connecting up with people, you sit down together, you work out a project, you work out a proposal, you get enthused, you do it, you know. And you don’t do that – well I don’t find they do that as well online.”
- Irene, senior level academic

9. Mobility in Academia
Mobility entails absence from home (Espino et al, 2002)
Professional absence – away from home institution
Personal absence – away from family, dependants, friends
Hidden gendered domestic labour associated with academic mobility
Academic presence necessarily entails absence

10. “I’m a single mum and I have… a 10 year old and a 16 year old
“I’m a single mum and I have… a 10 year old and a 16 year old. Their father lives near but he’s not always reliable to be available to me when I travel… At the moment this week while I’m [travelling] the boys are actually with their dad and this is the first week for the year that they have done that… So there was a bit of a hiccup in the family life the other day… so they may not stay at their dad’s for the whole six weeks and so I’m still trying to work that out over distance, by chatting to them online, on Facebook and all that sort of stuff. I’m trying to think “Oh my God, what other options have I got?”… So, it does have an impact.”
- Sarah, mid-career academic

11. Absent Present Mobilities
What get’s ‘left behind’ through the movement of people, ideas and engagement?
Does the local start to become absent when the global has attained such a presence in academic discourse?
As academia prioritises hypermobility, other forms of ‘slow’ scholarship (Hartman & Darab, 2012) become more absent

12. Critical Politics of Presence
Need for increased understanding of the absent presence of (aero)mobility in university policies & practice
Critique of current models of academic labour premised on long hours, blurring of home life & work, on travel leisure and academic labour
Virtual modes of engagement are not often replacing physical presence (Faulconbridge et al)
Need for new social practices of engagement