Sustainable Internationalization? A Mini-public on Climate Change Measures in Academia

A Mini-public is a democratic innovation that is usually used to improve opportunities for citizens to contribute to parliamentary deliberation on a given topic. In this project we use the Mini-public format to give university employees opportunities to contribute to a policy on sustainable internationalization, and various measures to reduce academic air travel. For many universities, internationalization is a priority goal, which is considered to increase the quality of research and education. However, universities also have commitments in relation to the UN`s sustainability goals, which stipulates that their climate footprint should be reduced. While international aviation contributes to current research exchange and collaboration, it certainly also contributes to Earth's changing climate. To generate a collegial perspective of how this value conflict should be handled, this project will survey all staff, and then let smaller groups av employees share information, consult experts, deliberate and give advice.