“No one talks about it”: using emotional methodologies to overcome climate silence and inertia in Higher Education

Pigott, Anna; Nuuttila, Hanna; Thomas, Merryn; Smith, Fern; Bohata, Kirsti; Murray, Tavi; Palser, Marega; Holmes, Emily; Elias, Osian

doi:10.3389/fsoc.2024.1456393

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“No one talks about it”: using emotional methodologies to overcome climate silence and inertia in Higher Education

Anna Pigott, Hanna Nuuttila, Merryn Thomas, Fern Smith, Kirsti Bohata

, Tavi Murray, Marega Palser, Emily Holmes, Osian Elias

Frontiers in Sociology, Volume: 9, Start page: 1456393

Swansea University Authors: Anna Pigott, Hanna Nuuttila, Merryn Thomas, Kirsti Bohata , Tavi Murray, Osian Elias

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DOI (Published version): 10.3389/fsoc.2024.1456393

Abstract

Higher Education (HE) is, at best, struggling to rise to the challenges of the climate and ecological crises (CEC) and, at worst, actively contributing to them by perpetuating particular ways of knowing, relating, and acting. Calls for HE to radically transform its activities in response to the poly...

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Published in:	Frontiers in Sociology
ISSN:	2297-7775
Published:	Frontiers Media SA 2024
Online Access:	Check full text
URI:	https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa68094

first_indexed	2024-10-29T11:41:00Z
last_indexed	2025-01-30T20:24:02Z
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By drawing on the emerging field of 'emotional methodologies', we make a case for the importance of emotionally reflexive practices for overcoming an institutionalised disconnect between feeling and knowing, especially in Western-disciplinary contexts. We suggest that if staff and students are afforded opportunities to connect with their emotions about the CEC, then institutional transformation is a) more likely to happen and be meaningfully sustained and b) less likely to fall into the same problematic patterns of knowledge and action that perpetuate these crises. 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spelling	2025-01-30T14:17:51.7621620 v2 68094 2024-10-29 “No one talks about it”: using emotional methodologies to overcome climate silence and inertia in Higher Education d6ac377df192d14714d20cffcc7f06a0 Anna Pigott Anna Pigott true false 0302aad4bf64c26334e2a44a7e8e8f13 Hanna Nuuttila Hanna Nuuttila true false 82aca05941f2ff78c16feb32b01acca9 Merryn Thomas Merryn Thomas true false baa4b4e271ee7f5b59e7fff66366c402 0000-0001-8969-4309 Kirsti Bohata Kirsti Bohata true false 8d6e71df690e725cd44191006dac31da Tavi Murray Tavi Murray true false 00dee48743f25410ac2ee9d78a771a02 0000-0002-4122-2457 Osian Elias Osian Elias true false 2024-10-29 Higher Education (HE) is, at best, struggling to rise to the challenges of the climate and ecological crises (CEC) and, at worst, actively contributing to them by perpetuating particular ways of knowing, relating, and acting. Calls for HE to radically transform its activities in response to the polycrises abound, yet questions about how and by what means this will be achieved are often overlooked. This article proposes that a lack of capacity to express and share emotions about the CEC in universities is at the heart of their relative climate silence and inertia. We build a theoretical and experimental justification for the importance of climate emotions in HE, drawing on our collective experience of the Climate Lab project (2021-2023), a series of in-person and online workshops that brought together scientists, engineers, and artists. We analyse the roles of grief, vulnerability, and creativity in the conversations that occurred, and explore these exchanges as potential pathways out of socially organised climate denial in neoliberal institutions. By drawing on the emerging field of 'emotional methodologies', we make a case for the importance of emotionally reflexive practices for overcoming an institutionalised disconnect between feeling and knowing, especially in Western-disciplinary contexts. We suggest that if staff and students are afforded opportunities to connect with their emotions about the CEC, then institutional transformation is a) more likely to happen and be meaningfully sustained and b) less likely to fall into the same problematic patterns of knowledge and action that perpetuate these crises. This profound, sometimes uncomfortable, emotionally reflexive work is situated in the wider context of glimpsing decolonial futures for universities, which are integral to climate and ecological justice. Journal Article Frontiers in Sociology 9 1456393 Frontiers Media SA 2297-7775 climate and ecological crisis, emotional methodologies, emotional reflexivity, climate action, connection, Higher Education 27 11 2024 2024-11-27 10.3389/fsoc.2024.1456393 COLLEGE NANME COLLEGE CODE Swansea University External research funder(s) paid the OA fee (includes OA grants disbursed by the Library) The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. The pilot Climate Lab was funded by a NERC/Swansea University Discipline Hopping seedcorn grant for developing multidisciplinary approaches to environmental challenges (NERC NE/X018288/1). The subsequent online Global Climate Lab was funded by the Morgan Advanced Studies Institute (MASI) Summit Funding (Swansea University). 2025-01-30T14:17:51.7621620 2024-10-29T11:19:07.0645292 Faculty of Science and Engineering School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Geography Anna Pigott 1 Hanna Nuuttila 2 Merryn Thomas 3 Fern Smith 4 Kirsti Bohata 0000-0001-8969-4309 5 Tavi Murray 6 Marega Palser 7 Emily Holmes 8 Osian Elias 0000-0002-4122-2457 9 68094__32978__09e0c762cba7418193b03182ddf6dfe4.pdf 68094.VoR.pdf 2024-11-27T12:43:28.3471429 Output 3580074 application/pdf Version of Record true © 2024 Pigott, Nuuttila, Thomas, Smith, Bohata, Murray, Palser, Holmes and Elias. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). true eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
title	“No one talks about it”: using emotional methodologies to overcome climate silence and inertia in Higher Education
spellingShingle	“No one talks about it”: using emotional methodologies to overcome climate silence and inertia in Higher Education Anna Pigott Hanna Nuuttila Merryn Thomas Kirsti Bohata Tavi Murray Osian Elias
title_short	“No one talks about it”: using emotional methodologies to overcome climate silence and inertia in Higher Education
title_full	“No one talks about it”: using emotional methodologies to overcome climate silence and inertia in Higher Education
title_fullStr	“No one talks about it”: using emotional methodologies to overcome climate silence and inertia in Higher Education
title_full_unstemmed	“No one talks about it”: using emotional methodologies to overcome climate silence and inertia in Higher Education
title_sort	“No one talks about it”: using emotional methodologies to overcome climate silence and inertia in Higher Education
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author	Anna Pigott Hanna Nuuttila Merryn Thomas Kirsti Bohata Tavi Murray Osian Elias
author2	Anna Pigott Hanna Nuuttila Merryn Thomas Fern Smith Kirsti Bohata Tavi Murray Marega Palser Emily Holmes Osian Elias
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description	Higher Education (HE) is, at best, struggling to rise to the challenges of the climate and ecological crises (CEC) and, at worst, actively contributing to them by perpetuating particular ways of knowing, relating, and acting. Calls for HE to radically transform its activities in response to the polycrises abound, yet questions about how and by what means this will be achieved are often overlooked. This article proposes that a lack of capacity to express and share emotions about the CEC in universities is at the heart of their relative climate silence and inertia. We build a theoretical and experimental justification for the importance of climate emotions in HE, drawing on our collective experience of the Climate Lab project (2021-2023), a series of in-person and online workshops that brought together scientists, engineers, and artists. We analyse the roles of grief, vulnerability, and creativity in the conversations that occurred, and explore these exchanges as potential pathways out of socially organised climate denial in neoliberal institutions. By drawing on the emerging field of 'emotional methodologies', we make a case for the importance of emotionally reflexive practices for overcoming an institutionalised disconnect between feeling and knowing, especially in Western-disciplinary contexts. We suggest that if staff and students are afforded opportunities to connect with their emotions about the CEC, then institutional transformation is a) more likely to happen and be meaningfully sustained and b) less likely to fall into the same problematic patterns of knowledge and action that perpetuate these crises. This profound, sometimes uncomfortable, emotionally reflexive work is situated in the wider context of glimpsing decolonial futures for universities, which are integral to climate and ecological justice.
published_date	2024-11-27T05:24:32Z
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“No one talks about it”: using emotional methodologies to overcome climate silence and inertia in Higher Education

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