Paper short abstract:

Stories of invasive alien species display a wide spectrum of threats. This paper scrutinizes how the apprehension and management of invasive species works as an emotional arena, where actors from different cultural contexts create new, and occasionally, surprising affective alliances.

Paper long abstract:

Stories of invasive alien species are in a fundamental way stories about the relations between culture and nature and about temporal and spatial definitions of belonging. In last decades, these stories have mainly been told by voices full of fear, anxiety, distress and anger, describing a spectrum of threats related to invasive species.

This paper will scrutinize how this spectrum of threats are linked to, and ties together existential questions, scientific knowledge, aesthetic domains, and popular mythologies. We will approach the subject matter of invasive alien species as an emotional nexus, where actors from different cultural contexts create new, and occasionally, surprising affective alliances. The engagement in invasive alien species draw together UNESCOs work with sustainable development goals and biodiversity, with local engagements in traditional landscapes and heritage production, as well as individual’s combating plants like Japanese knotweed invading their home.

In conclusion, we will show how the apprehension and management of invasive species becomes an emotional arena for conflicts and negotiations concerning foundations of belonging, as well as the very realms of nature and culture.