From Aspirational luxury to Hypermobility to Staying on the ground: Unpacking discourses of holiday air travel in Sweden

Holiday air travel has become a social norm for a subset of people (in high-income countries), resulting in rapidly growing emissions from aviation. In Sweden, conversations about the climate impacts from aviation are now on the rise, with flying being increasingly problematized.

With a departure in discourse analysis and the concept of storyline this presentation focuses on how the rising problematization of flying changes the meanings of holiday air travel in a carbon-constrained world. Three discourses of holiday air travel are analyzed: Aspirational luxury, Hypermobility, and Staying on the ground. As the storylines tied to these discourses evolve and compete, the meanings of holiday air travel change from desirable to taken-for-granted to an increasingly problematized part of life and society.

Notably, Staying on the ground challenges previously dominant discourses of holiday air travel through two parallel rationalities: moralization (flying is ethically wrong) and persuasion (emphasizing alternative ways of holidaying). By doing so, Staying on the ground contributes to reimagining the future of travel and visions of living well under climate change.

Read about Sara Ullström's research at LUCSUS website

The seminar is mainly targeted to researchers and students, but all interested are welcome.

LU Zoom meeting: https://lu-se.zoom.us/j/61287071128 

You can also join the meeting by entering the following information in the Join a meeting dialogue or in the Zoom app: Meeting ID: 612 8707 1128

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Lund University Centre for Sustainability Studies (LUCSUS) is a world class sustainability centre for research, teaching and impact where we work to understand, explain, and catalyse social change and transformations in relation to material limits in the biosphere.

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