The Absent Presence of Aeromobility: A Case of Australian Academic Air Travel Practices and University Policy

The chapter draws on our research on academic air travel and virtual collaboration in Australian universities to develop the concept of absent present mobilities and uncover some of its effects on environmental sustainability and equity. In the following sections, we explore how academic experiences of air travel illustrate absent presence in three domains. First, we discuss the inequities raised by academics who are present globally, whilst others—be they family members and dependents, or less mobile academics—remain at home. Second, we draw on an analysis of Australian university strategic plans and internationalisation policies to reveal how these institutional ambitions mean regular air travel by academics and other people associated with the sector. We show how aeromobility also has an absent presence in these policy orientations, frequently assumed rather than explicitly articulated. Third, we draw on past analysis of Australian universities’ sustainability policies, where air travel is largely absent within the heightened contemporary presence of sustainability. Finally, we discuss what the concept of absent present mobilities might offer researchers in the future, as a way to confront inequalities in mobility and the potential for alternative scholarship.