Articles | Volume 81, issue 1
https://doi.org/10.5194/gh-81-77-2026
© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Special issue:
https://doi.org/10.5194/gh-81-77-2026
© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Political feelings in ecological crises – an Introduction to the Theme Issue “Emotional society-nature-relations” [Emotionale Gesellschaft-Natur-Verhältnisse]
Jan Winkler
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Institute of Geography, European Centre of Just Transition Research and Impact Driven Transfer (JTC), Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Halle, Germany
Boris Michel
Institute of Geoscience and Geography, Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Halle, Germany
Related authors
No articles found.
Boris Michel and Finn Dammann
Geogr. Helv., 79, 311–323, https://doi.org/10.5194/gh-79-311-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/gh-79-311-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Critical geographers in recent years became interested incidents of failure, disruption and glitches in digital technologies. While we sympathize with the basic assumptions of this discussion this paper proposes an opposing perspective. Using the example of Internet infrastructures, we focus on the work of preventing glitches and maintanance. We are particularly interested in the production of resilience the rationalities of redundancy and addressing latency.
Frederieke Westerheide and Boris Michel
Geogr. Helv., 79, 191–204, https://doi.org/10.5194/gh-79-191-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/gh-79-191-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
The governance of urban drug use and its economies has played an important role in the production and control of public space in numerous cities of the global North since the 1970s. Using the example of Görlitzer Park in Berlin's Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg district, this paper argues for a spatially sensitive perspective on the spatializing practices of urban drug policies.
Benedikt Korf, Ute Wardenga, Julia Verne, Boris Michel, Francis Harvey, Antje Schlottmann, and Jeannine Wintzer
Geogr. Helv., 79, 161–175, https://doi.org/10.5194/gh-79-161-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/gh-79-161-2024, 2024
Boris Michel
Geogr. Helv., 77, 153–163, https://doi.org/10.5194/gh-77-153-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/gh-77-153-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Qualitative research in geography and visual geographies have an ambivalent relationship with maps. Reasons for this are manifold. Based on current discussions in geography and beyond, this article explores and systematizes practices of critical mapping in order to explore new connections between visual approaches of qualitative geographies and maps.
Cited articles
Adloff, F., Fladvad, B., Hasenfratz, M., and Neckel, S. (Eds.): Imaginationen von Nachhaltigkeit: Katastrophe. Krise. Normalisierung, Campus, Frankfurt a. M., ISBN 9783593512808, 2020.
Ahmed, S.: Cultural Politics of Emotion, 2nd Edn., Edinburgh, University Press, ISBN 978 0 7486 9113 5, 2014.
Albrecht, G.: Negating solastalgia: An emotional revolution from the Anthropocene to the Symbiocene, American Imago, 77, 9–30, https://doi.org/10.1353/aim.2020.0001, 2020.
Anderson, B.: Encountering Affect: Capacities, Apparatuses, Conditions, New York, Routledge, ISBN 9781138248489, 2014.
Anderson, B.: Emergency futures: Exception, urgency, interval, hope, The Sociological Review, 65, 463–477, https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-954X.12447, 2017.
Anderson, B.: Governing emergencies: the politics of delay and the logic of response, Transaction, 41, 14–26, https://doi.org/10.1111/tran.12100, 2016.
Anderson, B. and Harrison, P. (Eds.): Taking Place – Non-Representational Theories and Geography, Burlington, Ashgate, ISBN 9780754672784, 2010.
Bargetz, B. and Sauer, B.: Politik, Emotionen und die Transformation des Politischen. Eine feministisch-machtkritische Perspektive, Österreichische Zeitschrift für Politikwissenschaft – ÖZP, 39, 141–155, https://doi.org/10.15203/ozp.609.vol39iss2, 2010.
Bauriedl, S.: Politische Ökologie: nicht-deterministische, globale und materielle Dimensionen von Natur/Gesellschaft-Verhältnissen, Geographica Helvetica, 71, 341–351, https://doi.org/10.5194/gh-71-341-2016, 2016.
Becker, S. and Otto, A.: Editorial: Natur, Gesellschaft, Materialität: aktuelle Herausforderungen der Politischen Ökologie, Geographica Helvetica, 71, 221–227, https://doi.org/10.5194/gh-71-221-2016, 2016.
Bertram, E.: Non-representational thinking: Methodologische Überlegungen anhand des Bonner Sperrmüllassemblages, Geographica Helvetica, 71, 283–301, https://doi.org/10.5194/gh-71-283-2016, 2016.
Block, K.: Sorge im Anthropozän, in: Gesellschaftstheorie im Anthropozän, edited by: Adloff, F. and Neckel, S., Campus, Frankfurt am Main, 235–257, ISBN 9783593445243, 2020.
Boos, P. and Jessen, G.: „Wir sind hier, wir sind laut“ – Artikulationen von Emotionen der Nähe auf Fahrraddemonstrationen, Geographica Helvetica, 78, 1–13, https://doi.org/10.5194/gh-78-1-2023, 2023.
Brace, C. and Geoghegan, H.: Human Geographies of Climate Change: Landscape, Temporality, and Lay Knowledges, Progress in Human Geography 34, 284–302, https://doi.org/10.1177/0309132510376259, 2010.
Braidotti, R.: Nomadic Theory, Columbia University Press, New York, ISBN 9780231525428, 2011.
Budnik, M., Großmann, K., Hess, C., and Wemhauer, T.: How different emotions emerge in the context of the energy crisis: A contribution to emotional energy geographies, Geographical Journal, 191, https://doi.org/10.1111/geoj.12619, 2025.
Cunsolo, A and Landman, K. (Eds.): Mourning Nature: Hope at the Heart of Ecological Loss and Grief, McGill-Queen's University Press, Montreal, ISBN-10 077354934X, 2017.
Davidson, J., Bondi, L., and Smith, M. (Eds.): Emotional Geographies, Ashgate, Burlington, ISBN 1409487113, 2007.
Despret, V.: The Body We Care for: Figures of Anthropo-zoo-genesis, Body & Society, 10, 111–134, https://doi.org/10.1177/1357034X04042938, 2004.
Doshi, S.: Embodied urban political ecology: five propositions, Area, 49, 125–128, https://doi.org/10.1111/area.12293, 2017.
Engelmann, S. and McCormack, D.: Elemental aesthetics: On Artistic Experiments with Solar Energy, Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 108, 241–259, https://doi.org/10.1080/24694452.2017.1353901, 2018.
Eriksen, S.: Is my vulnerability so different from your's? A call for compassionate climate change research, Progress in Human Geography, 46, 1279–1297, https://doi.org/10.1177/03091325221083221, 2022.
Eversberg, D., Fritz, M., von Faber, L., and Schmelzer, M.: Der neue sozial-ökologische Klassenkonflikt, Campus Verlag, Frankfurt am Main, ISBN 9783593519951, 2024.
Extinction Rebellion (XR): Wann wenn nicht wir* – ein Extinction Rebellion Handbuch, S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main, ISBN: 978-3-10-397003-6, 2019.
Fladvad, B. and Hasenfratz, M.: Einleitung, in: Imaginationen von Nachhaltigkeit: Katastrophe. Krise. Normalisierung, edited by: Adloff, F., Fladvad, B., Hasenfratz, M., and Neckel, S., Campus, Frankfurt a. M., 13–28, ISBN 9783593512808, 2020.
Fotaki, M. and Daskalaki, M.: Politicizing the Body in the Anti-Mining Protest in Greece, Organization Studies, 42, 1265–1290, https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840619882955, 2020.
Gammerl, B. and Herrn, R.: Gefühlsräume – Raumgefühle, Sub\urban, 3, 7–22, https://doi.org/10.36900/suburban.v3i2.190, 2015.
Gammerl, B., Hutta, J., and Scheer, M.: Feeling Differently, Emotion, Space and Society, 25, 87–94, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.emospa.2017.07.007, 2017.
Ginn, F., Bastian, M., Farrier, D., and Kidwell, J.: Introduction: Unexpected Encounters with Deep Time, Environmental Humanities, 10, 213–225, https://doi.org/10.1215/22011919-4385534, 2018.
González-Hidalgo, M. and Zografos, C.: Emotions, power, and environmental conflict: Expanding the “emotional turn” in political ecology, Progress in Human Geography, 44, 235–255, https://doi.org/10.1177/0309132518824644, 2020.
Grosz, E.: Time Travels: Feminism, Nature, Power, Duke University Press, Durham, https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822386551, 2005.
Haarstad, H., Grandin, J., Kjærås, K., and Johnson, E. (Eds.): Haste – The Slow Politics of Climate Emergency, UCL Press, London, https://doi.org/10.14324/111.9781800083288, 2023.
Helfritzsch, P. and Müller-Hipper, J. (Eds.): Die Emotionalisierung des Politischen, Transcript, Bielefeld, ISBN 978-3-8376-5278-9, 2021.
Heynen, N., Kaika, M., and Swyngedouw, E. (Eds.): In the Nature of Cities: Urban Political Ecology and the Politics of Urban Metabolism, Routledge, London/New York, ISBN 9780415368285, 2005.
Howe, C.: Ecologics – Wind and Power in the Anthropocene, Duke University Press, Durham, ISBN 978-1-4780-0385-4, 2019.
Hulme, M.: The conquering of climate: Discourses of fear and their dissolution, The Geographical Journal, 174, 5–16, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-4959.2008.00266.x, 2008.
Johnston, C. and Bonnett, A.: Picturing these days of love and rage: Extinction Rebellion's “Impossible Rebellion”', Cultural Geographies, 30, 315–323, https://doi.org/10.1177/14744740221096102, 2023.
Jupp, E., Pykett, S., and Smith, F. M. (Eds.): Emotional States, Routledge, London, ISBN 9781138624160, 2017.
Knops, L.: Beyond the indignation of young climate activists: The political potential of climate-emotions, in: Research Handbook on the Sociology of Youth, edited by: Bessant, J., Collin, P., and O'Keeffe, P., Elgar, Cheltenham, 53–69, ISBN9781803921808, 2024.
Knops, L.: Stuck between the modern and the terrestrial: The indignation of the youth for climate movement, Political Research Exchange, 3, e1868946, https://doi.org/10.1080/2474736X.2020.1868946, 2021.
Knops, L.: The Fear We Feel Everyday: Affective temporalities in Fridays for Future, South Atlantic Quarterly, 122, 203–214, https://doi.org/10.1215/00382876-10242784, 2023.
Kuhn, L.: Das Theater mit den Wissenschaften: Affektive Atmosphären einer künstlerisch-kollaborativen Bearbeitung der Klimakrise, Geographica Helvetica, 78, 15–27, https://doi.org/10.5194/gh-78-15-2023, 2023.
Madden, D.: City of emergency, City, 23, 281–284, https://doi.org/10.1080/13604813.2019.1648734, 2019.
Martiskainen, M. and Sovacool, B.: Mixed feelings: A review and research agenda for emotions in sustainability transitions, Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions, 40, 609–624, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eist.2021.10.023, 2021.
McCann, E.: “Right Here, Right Now”: Immediacy, Space and Publicness in the Politics of Climate Crisis, in: Haste – the Slow Politics of Climate Emergency, edited by: Haarstad, H., Grandin, J., Kjærås, K., and Johnson, E., UCL Press, London, 73–82, https://doi.org/10.14324/111.9781800083288, 2023.
Neckel, S. and Hasenfratz, M.: Climate Emotions and Emotional Climates: The Emotional Map of Ecological Crises and the Blind Spots on Our Sociological Landscapes, Social Science Information, 60, 253–271, https://doi.org/10.1177/0539018421996264, 2021.
Nightingale, A., Gonda, N., and Eriksen, S.: Affective Adaptation = Effective Transformation? Shifting the Politics of Climate Change Adaptation and Transformation From the Status Quo, WIRE's Climate Change, 13, 1–16, https://doi.org/10.1002/wcc.740, 2022.
Neimanis, A. and Walker, R.: Weathering: Climate Change and the Thick Time of Transcorporeality, Hypatia A Journal of Feminist Philosophy, 29, 558–575, https://doi.org/10.1111/hypa.12064, 2014.
Olson, E.: Geography and ethics I: Waiting and Urgency, Progress in Human Geography, 39, 517–526, https://doi.org/10.1177/0309132515595758, 2015.
Philipp, R. F.: The emotional politics of territorio: women's resistance at the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Oaxaca, Mexico, Geographica Helvetica, 80, 109–122, https://doi.org/10.5194/gh-80-109-2025, 2025.
Pohl, L. and Helbrecht, I.: Imaginäre Naturverhältnisse: Psychoanalytische Einsichten zur Herstellung ontologischer Sicherheit in Berlin, Vancouver und Singapur, Geographica Helvetica, 77, 389–401, https://doi.org/10.5194/gh-77-389-2022, 2022.
Popke, J.: Researching the Hybrid Geographies of Climate Change: reflections from the field, Area, 48, 2–6, https://doi.org/10.1111/area.12220, 2016.
Roelvink, G. and Zolkos, M.: Climate Change as Experience of Affect, Angelaki Journal of Theoretical Humanities, 16, 43–57, https://doi.org/10.1080/0969725X.2011.641344, 2011.
Rowe, T. and Ormond, M.: Holding Space for Climate Justice? Urgency and “Regenerative Cultures” in Extinction Rebellion Netherlands, Geoforum, 146, 103868, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2023.103868, 2023.
Ryan, K.: Incorporating Emotional Geography into Climate Change Research: A Case Study in Londonderry, Vermont, USA, Emotion, Space and Society 19, 5–12, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.emospa.2016.02.006, 2016.
Scheer, M.: Emotionspraktiken, in: Emotional Turn?! Europäisch ethnologische Zugänge zu Gefühlen & Gefühlswelten, edited by: Beitl, M. and Schneider, I., Buchreihe der Österreichischen Zeitschrift für Volkskunde, Neue Serie, Band 27, 15–36, ISBN 978-3-900358-34-1, 2016.
Schlegel, L. M.: Between climates of fear and blind optimism: the affective role of emotions for climate (in)action, Geographica Helvetica, 77, 421–431, https://doi.org/10.5194/gh-77-421-2022, 2022.
Schurr, C.: Towards an Emotional Electoral Geography: the performativity of emotions in electoral campaigning in Ecuador, Geoforum, 49, 114–126, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2013.05.008, 2013.
Schurr, C. and Strüver, A.: „The Rest“: Geographien des Alltäglichen zwischen Affekt, Emotion und Repräsentation, Geographica Helvetica, 71, 87–97, https://doi.org/10.5194/gh-71-87-2016, 2016.
Schürkmann, C.: „Diskursiv-konsensual ausgerichtete Konfliktregelung“? Versuche der Versachlichung und die Widerständigkeit von Emotionen im Umgang mit Atommüll, Geographica Helvetica, 78, 309–323, https://doi.org/10.5194/gh-78-309-2023, 2023.
Seagrave, J.: Protest in the face of catastrophe: Extinction Rebellion and the anti-politics of grief, Suomen Antropologi, 47, 49–73, https://doi.org/10.30676/jfas.101239, 2023.
Simonsen, K.: Encountering O/other Bodies: Practice, Emotion and Ethics, in: Taking Place: Non-Representational Theories and Geography, edited by: Anderson, B. and Harrison, P., Ashgate, Burlington, 221–241, ISBN 9781409408963, 2010.
Singh, N.: The affective labor of growing forests and the becoming of environmental subjects: Rethinking environmentality in Odisha, India, Geoforum, 47, 189–198, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2013.01.010, 2013.
Sørensen, A.: Overcoming abstraction: Affectual states in the efforts to decarbonize energy among young climate activists in Stavanger, Norway, in: Digitisation and Low Carbon Energy Transitions, edited by: Sareen, S. and Müller, K., Palgrave, Cham, 73–99, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-16708-9_10, 2023.
Stephan, C. and Wiemann, J.: Praktiken und Zeit: Perspektiven von Zeit und Zeitlichkeit für die Humangeographie, in: Handbuch Praktiken und Raum: Humangeographie nach dem Practice Turn, edited by: Everts, J. and Schäfer, S., Transcript, Bielefeld, 137–159, https://doi.org/10.14361/9783839446034-005, 2019.
Strüver, A.: Urbane Metabolismen: Verkörperte Politische Ökologien des e/Essens, sub\urban – Zeitschrift für kritische Stadtforschung, 8, 99–116, https://doi.org/10.36900/suburban.v8i1/2.497, 2020.
Swyngedouw, E.: Depoliticized Environments: The End of Nature, Climate Change and the Post-Political Condition, Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplements, 69, 253–274, https://doi.org/10.1017/S1358246111000300, 2011.
Thrift, N.: Intensities of Feeling: Towards a Spatial Politics of Affect, Geografiska Annaler, 86, 57–78, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0435-3684.2004.00154.x, 2004.
Tuitjer, L.: Unruly waters: exploring the embodied dimension of an urban flood in Bangkok through materiality, affect and emotions, Geographica Helvetica, 78, 281–290, https://doi.org/10.5194/gh-78-281-2023, 2023.
Verlie, B.: “Climatic-Affective atmospheres”: A conceptual tool for affective scholarship in a changing climate, Emotion, Space and Society, 33, 100623, doi.org/10.1016/j.emospa.2019.100623, 2019.
Wetherell, M.: Affect and Emotion: A New Social Science Understanding, Sage, London, https://doi.org/10.4135/9781446250945, 2012.
Winkler, J.: Ungewisse Werdungen – Henri Bergsons Philosophie der Dauer, die Praxis der Intuition und die Erkundung kreativer Mensch-Umwelt-Beziehungen, in: Praxis und Ungewissheit – Zur Alltäglichkeit sozial-ökologischer Krisen, edited by: Altstadt, S., Fladvad, B., and Hasenfratz, M., Campus, Frankfurt/New York, 133–163, ISBN 9783593515212, 2022.
Winkler, J., Kuhn, L., and Freytag, L.: The Affective Topologies of the Climate Crisis: On the Spatial Intensities of the Climate Political Protests in Lützerath, Germany, Environment & Planning D: Society & Space, 1–20, https://doi.org/10.1177/02637758251362526, 2025.
Wright, S., Plahe, J., and Gavin, J.: Feeling climate change to the bone: emotional topologies of climate, Third World Quartely, 43, 1–19, https://doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2021.1987210, 2022.
Short summary
The editorial introduces the special issue on socio-environmental emotionalities. It stresses the importance of analysing the emotional and affective dimensions of shifting society–environment relations in the context of climate change and socio-ecological crises. Based on a political and spatial conceptualisation of emotions and affects, the editorial asks about their role in shaping power relations and subjectivities, while engaging with the rich contributions to the special issue.
The editorial introduces the special issue on socio-environmental emotionalities. It stresses...