COVID-19 impacts academic interaction

“The time for digital new interaction formats is now. Digital interaction formats have successfully substituted physical conferences during the COVID-19 pandemic and will be part of a new regime in the field of academic exchange. We expect a fundamental change in how academic communities operate and how academics socialize” conclude the two SusTec researchers Marius and Alejandro. Together with the other organizers of this year’s conference for the Network of Early career researchers in Sustainability Transitions (NEST), they wrote a perspective article for the journal Energy Research & Social Science, drawing upon the experience of organizing the first digital conference for this network.

This perspective outlines positive and negative impacts when switching from physical to digital interaction for scientific exchanges. Digital interaction can increase the inclusivity of academic exchange, reduce the time and costs of organizing academic interaction, save resources, and enable more diverse workspaces with geographical and temporal flexibility. However, digital formats struggle to reproduce social interactions such as informal talks, raise new concerns on data security, and can result in higher stress levels and reduced personal well-being. Also, the extent of carbon emissions savings from going digital is yet unclear. The authors conclude that digital tools are not meant to substitute physical interaction entirely in the future, but rather reshape how research com-munities organize their interactions.

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