Conferencing
The traditional way of conferencing, not just in linguistics but also in other sciences, is not sustainable. Here we will discuss some of the problems and give possible solutions.
Reasons why conferences nowadays are often not sustainable[edit | edit source]
The main problems related to conferences are related to travels and catering. For both of these topics, it is important to look both at the quantity and the quality. For the quantity of the conference-related-travels, a combination of both virtual and in-person conferences might be part of the solution. For the quality, it should always be considered to travel sustainably. This includes taking trains, or buses, instead of flights. When there is no other possibility than to fly, direct flights are better, because they emit less CO2. It is also always possible to compensate for one's emission, e.g. through www.myclimate.org . Concerning catering, vegan or vegetarian food, from local production, should be prefered. This accounts for a lower amount of emissions.
Observations in querying conferences[edit | edit source]
https://linguistlist.org/conf/search/?query=)
1. querying "online" and "virtual"[edit | edit source]
Querying "online" produces 6 pages' results in total but upon further inspection not all these are conferences with an online possibility, but rather mentioning the word for different reasons: either, there is a link to a website that includes the word "online" in its web address; or, the conference topic is related to online practices (for example, change in communication sped up by the pandemic[1]), to mention a couple of these.
A search by the term "virtual" produces two pages of meetings. Again, not all mention a virtual meeting possibility. One of these mentions studies on the advantages and disadvantages of online vs face-to-face meetings and different tools or platforms to use[2], but ironically does not offer an online meeting option.
With a total 58 pages of meetings, the results to these quick searches mean that less than 10% of meetings open online options. Few meetings marked out the word "online" in the meeting title. Most of them have "online" as the location. The picture below shows us that online meeting is sometimes added as an option for participants to choose, together with onsite meeting.
2. querying "hybrid"[edit | edit source]
Querying "hybrid" produces 20 meetings, some of which are actually organized as hybrid events, as shown in the right page. Others explicitly say there is no virtual, online, or hybrid option possible. There also appear to be some doubles, since at least one call for papers is for another meeting.
3. Filtering with different subfield[edit | edit source]
Filtering different linguistic subfields, applied linguistics is the most heatedly discussed field with 15 pages of results, compared with anthropological linguistics (4 pages), cognitive science (4 pages), discourse analysis (8 pages), etc. Linguistic conferences put emphasis on how to put linguistic knowledge into practical use.
4. Filtering with different language[edit | edit source]
Filtering "English" produces an astounding 29 pages results. The total amount of meetings in this website is 58 pages. Thereby, this observation means that half of the conferences are focusing on English.
Conclusions[edit | edit source]
The following meetings were found to have an online attendance option:
- 8th International Conference on Language Documentation & Conservation (held only virtually; language documentation)
- Sixth Workshop on the Use of Computational Methods in the Study of Endangered Languages (held only virtually; computational linguistics, language documentation)
- 13th International Seminar on Speech Production (hybrid; phonetics, clinical linguistics, computational linguistics)
- International Computer Archive of Modern and Medieval English (hybrid/South Africa, corpus linguistics)
- 8th Workshop on Turkic and Languages in Contact with Turkic (hybrid/USA)
- 53rd Annual Meeting of the North East Linguistics Society (hybrid/Germany)
- AILA 2023 - Diversity and Social Cohesion in a Globalised World: Towards More Committed Language Sciences (hybrid/France)
- SCCC-3: The South Caucasian Chalk Circle-3 (hybrid/Georgia; morphology)
Unsustainable practices[edit | edit source]
- flying to distance places only to attend a conference for a day or two without any additional value
- choosing on-site attendance over online participation
- organizing conferences in places opposing human rights and supporting non-democratic regimes
Inclusivity[edit | edit source]
- organizing conferences in hybrid format - so that even participants from remote places can take part - combination of on-site and online participation
- organizing conferences in democratic countries which do not suppress human rights
- reduced or no participation fee or possible discounts
- offering the chance to publish after conference without high fees
Accessibility[edit | edit source]
- organizing conferences at places that are easy to reach - prefearbly by other means of transport than plans
- in case of unavoidable air transport, maximize the contribution of the conference to the place where it is organized
- hybrid conference - combination of on-site and online participation
Suggestions based on sustainability[edit | edit source]
1. society[edit | edit source]
- prove the efficiency and practicality of conferences
- equal opportunities for participants
- balance the conferences in different linguistic subfields and subject languages
2. economics[edit | edit source]
- online meeting as an option
- prove the quality of meetings, cancel unnecessary ones
3. environment[edit | edit source]
- online meetings to reduce carbon footprints
- suggesting participants to be better consumers
