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- Convenors:
-
Aet Annist
(University of Tartu and Tallinn University)
Bianka Plüschke-Altof (Tallinn University)
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- Stream:
- Identities and Subjectivities
- Location:
- Thomas Paine Study Centre 2.03
- Sessions:
- Friday 6 September, -, -
Time zone: Europe/London
Short Abstract:
The panel invites explorations of socialities and identities emerging from heightened climate change fear and the knowledge systems of alarming climate information, their dispossessive effects in different contexts and the creativeness in preparing for a terrifying tomorrow, and in studying it.
Long Abstract:
As levels of concern regarding possible dangerous climate change increase, growing numbers of people have become very alarmed about the severe threat to humankind in the near future. Facing fear is deeply personal and can render one hopeless and withdrawn, but also determined to prepare by mobilising, regrouping, preaching, etc.
This panel invites theoretical and empirical explorations of identities and socialities emerging from such fears and responses to these. We propose, firstly, to investigate the particular knowledge systems sourcing people with their certainties and fears for the future, and their juxtapositions with the opposing epistemes (such as climate denialism), leading to particular perspectives on humankind's place in the world. Secondly, the panel will consider the dispossessive effects fear for the future might have in different socioeconomic, political and spatial contexts. On the one hand, for many of the fearful individuals, making preparations for the feared future is financially or practically unattainable. On the other hand, institutionalized processes, including state efforts to work towards climate goals have unequal effects across socioeconomic groups. Finally, dispossession works also across time and generations as wealth of the future selves and generations is transferred to the present via capitalist processes. Thirdly, we invite the participants to explore the creative responses, pathways and strategies arising from the attempts to prepare for, or alter today the terrifying tomorrow. With this, we aim to also discuss the potential of collaborative and innovative fieldwork to capture the socializing and/or individualising dimensions of fear.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Friday 6 September, 2019, -Aet Annist (University of Tartu and Tallinn University)
Paper short abstract:
The aim of this paper is to lay the groundworks for studying fear of climate change. Fear being an apparently more psychological than social feature, what realms/dimensions and methods could be used in anthropology, with what results? What might be excluded, what gained?
Paper long abstract:
This presentation is exploring the more general aspects of what needs to be studied when studying fear of climate change or climate affect. For this aim, I am considering the knowledge systems, dispossessive effects and strategies surrounding climate affects through the case of Extinction Rebellion.
At this stage, the data for this comes primarily from the web-based communities, from which the research targeting fear at the centre of these processes can move outwards. Within this, studying knolwedge systems appears easy, but what are the potential issues here?
Gaining access to the data on structural positions of those affected is a challenge that web-based research struggles to respond to - on the other hand, traditional fieldwork with protest groups throws other challenges at the researcher. Secondly, how do institutional response to climate change impact on both the fearful individuals, on fear in general, as well as on solutions from the protest groups (but equally on other groups for whom climate change is at the centre of their being). Thirdly, can we study dispossession as a feature of the future? Are there groups who can be considered of perceive themselves as dispossessed of the future?
Finally, this paper will consider the methods that are needed for this kind of study with a keen eye on the combination of fear, desperation and trouble, and hope, creativity, and the friction - friction to fight fire with fire - that these juxtapositions generate.
Joonas Plaan (Tallinn University)
Paper short abstract:
In relation to climate change, this paper aims to look the relation of power, capital and nature as a whole, and how it restructures human and non-human relations and anticipations in front of the future in rural Newfoundland, Canada.
Paper long abstract:
The interaction of changing environments and climate with socio-economic, reveals that the material and discursive processes in relation to ocean and resource users continuously reshape the context - the way people are embedded into nature; local's interaction with the community and global fish market; and political processes. Most importantly, in relation to declining rural population, these interactive contributions, the effects of different scales and hierarchies of socio-economic, the changing environment shape how people make scenarios for the future. What people anticipate guide their decisions for the future. The access to marine resources, or fact of not having the access, participating or not participating in the fisheries are part of experiencing the changes and anticipating their effects (see Born et al. 2011). Natural climate variability in relation to human caused global climate change adds a layer of unknown in front of the future. Shifting seasons and unexpected winds, just to name few effects of climate change, make the environment as unpredicted as socio-economic reality that is shaped by uncontrollable extra-local processes. It has had two effects. It has caused disconnection from the local environment and diminished the power of traditional knowledge of climate. Secondly, people face greater socioeconomic precarity. As a result, the youth leaves for the safer future, leaving behind their homes, parents and friends. The fact that this has happened while Newfoundland fishermen are earning more than ever in the fisheries, is a strong example of how powerful the fear in front of the future is.
Alexander Horstmann (University of Bielefeld)
Paper short abstract:
People at the fringes of Myanmar are greatly exposed to global warming, climate changes and natural disaster. The study starts at the premise that people in Southeast Asia are not just victims of climatic catastrophe, but actively position themselves in solutions in anticipation of greater damage
Paper long abstract:
People at the fringes of Myanmar are greatly exposed to global warming, climate changes and natural disaster. The study starts at the premise that people in Southeast Asia are not just victims of climatic catastrophe, but actively position themselves in solutions to landscapes in anticipation of greater damage. It avoids romanticizing communities, but has a closer look at the dynamics within the communities and how fear and resignation are also outcomes of processes of political and economic dispossession. Horstmann uses vulnerability as a starting point to study the work on mobilization along the lines of indigenous people's claims and protests, to study the investments of communities to rebuild the landscape and built protective measures, but also the resignation after the destruction of home, especially given the pillage of military predatory business practice and state-building in the area. The term of repair is used to illustrate the navigational efforts of Karen to invest into rebuilding landscapes in an attempt to bolster the community in anticipation of worst things to come. Doing so, the Karen hope to draw the sympathy and financial support of international organizations, who regard their efforts as bulwark against the destruction of a vital mountain range and ecological sy stem. The extended case study aims to offer a picture of the adaptive responses to climate change, community making and of the global connections in which Karen practices of protest and protection are entangled with.
Noah Walker-Crawford (London School of Economics)
Paper short abstract:
Scientific studies point to a high risk of flooding for the city of Huaraz due to melting glaciers, yet many locals are unconcerned. They fear the prospect of water scarcity, which threatens entire livelihoods. This fear arises from people's knowledge and experience of environmental disruption.
Paper long abstract:
As a result of climate change and glacial retreat, Palcacocha glacier lake has grown immensely in volume. An international team of scientists produced flood models that point to an acute hazard to the city of Huaraz and surrounding areas. Yet scientists and local government authorities are perplexed that many locals seem unconcerned about this risk of flooding. Farmers in particular find trouble relating to flood models - disaster may strike, but nobody knows when. Rather, they fear the concrete prospect of water scarcity. Water is crucial for agricultural livelihoods and has become ever scarcer as glaciers retreat. For rural Andeans, fear arises out of their experiential engagement with an increasingly unstable environment as they face an uncertain future.
Bianka Plüschke-Altof (Tallinn University)
Paper short abstract:
Against the backdrop of a terrifying tomorrow, environmental education often attempts sending positive messages to avoid environmental apathy. The mobilizing effect of the Fridays for Future movements' employment of climate fear however question the apathy hypothesis.
Paper long abstract:
To prepare for the terrifying tomorrow in the era of the Anthropocene, environmental education is seen as pivotal. While latest debates in the field emphasize the importance of positive messages in order to avoid apathy caused by environmental melancholia, the worldwide Fridays for Future strikes against climate destruction have mobilized youth and supporters globally by employing a doomsday and extinction scenario - thereby questioning the widely accepted apathy hypothesis.
Considering that actually changing the environmental behavior of lay people and decision-makers has become a priority of environmental education as well as the effects of knowledge production on social practices and subjectivities, the presentation presents first results of a study with the Fridays For Future group in Estonia who - inspired by Grete Thunberg - organize school strikes, demonstrations and climate chains. By focusing on the mobilizing effects of the movement for the youth involved, it juxtaposes these results with current discussions on environmental learning that concentrate on positive messages (e.g. the "Nature Academy", environmental education centers) and a reconnection to nature (e.g. urban gardening, educating hiking trails) due to the ascribed negative effects of employing fear for the future.