Short abstract

There is a need to engage with feelings to foster socio-ecological transformations towards liveable futures. The presentation discusses concepts and methods to engage with ecological feelings in research and teaching to counter structures of indifference towards ecological decline.

Long abstract

An increasing number of scholars highlight the role of emotions in socio-ecological transformations, pointing to feelings such as hope, anxiety or shame as potential motivators—or barriers—for climate action. A growing body of literature also identifies ignorance and indifference as affective dispositions that contribute to inaction. Yet academic institutions often continue to privilege ideals of rational knowledge production that exclude feelings and embodied experiences from conference spaces and classrooms, thereby reproducing structures of indifference.

In this presentation, I argue for the need to engage with ecological feelings in both research and teaching in order to foster socio-ecological transformations towards liveable futures. Drawing on the work of Blanche Verlie (2021), I first suggest that responding to climate change requires learning how to 'live with' it and to emotionally attune to its realities. I then propose that developing 'critical emotional awareness' (Ojala, 2022) within academic 'spaces of support and kindness' (Ploder, 2022) can offer one way of fostering such engagement in research and teaching. As a concrete method, I introduce a collaborative autoethnographic writing practice that invites participants to engage with their own ecological feelings and to collectively explore ways of feeling, responding to and shaping socio-ecological transformation. By discussing concepts and methods that cultivate an engagement with ecological feelings, the presentation aims for a research and teaching culture of unlearning indifference towards today's planetary changes.