Flying Through a Perfect Moral Storm: How do Norwegian environmentalists negotiate their aeromobility practices?

Abstract

While growing rates of air-travel contributes to large amounts of global emissions – and a substantial part of the environmental footprints of those who fly – it has not yet been subject to strict environmental regulations. Arguably, working towards sustainable mobilities will require to achieve a greater understanding of the roles, meanings, and implications of consumer air-travel. Recognising that the environmental issue of aeromobility hinges on both social and material factors, this thesis presents a practice-theoretical investigation into the ways in which 13 Norwegian environmentalists negotiate their own aeromobilities as environmentally conscious consumers, based on qualitative interviews. Framing air-travel as a social practice, the thesis has provided some tools for moving past the moral impasse of whether or not flying is justifiable; instead putting the focus on what aeromobility means for consumers, why they continue to fly, and, as an extension of this, how aeromobilities change and become (un)sustainable. The analyses demonstrated that the environmentalists were highly self-reflexive and spent much time and effort negotiating their (aero)mobilities. Adopting sustainable mobility practices was generally hard work requiring personal sacrifices. When construed as a practice in its own right, air-travel was thought of as environmentally damaging; something of excess, an overused privilege. As part of other practices, however, aeromobility became an important tool; an enabler of opportunities and positive experiences. The analyses emphasise the notion that air-travel is not only a practice in its own right, but part of many other practices with wider socio-environmental implications. The implication of this is that achieving more sustainable mobilities might require attention to not only the modes of transport in question, but to the wider social practices in which different mobilities are part. Based on the analyses, the discussion adds a new layer to the conceptualisation of aeromobility. It proposes that contemporary aeromobility can be thought of as an unsustainable “system” comprised of material and (infra)structural as well as socio-cultural and affective components, woven together through complex logics which inform consumers’ mobility practices in such a way that aeromobility is reproduced.