This PhD thesis maps a range of what the author terms 'Emotional Methodologies' (EMs) - group work processes such as The Work that Reconnects, Active Hope and the Carbon Literacy Project - used by UK Civil Society Organisations to acknowledge and process the complex, often contradictory emotions raised by the climate crisis. Drawing on concepts of emotional habitus and emotional reflexivity, the thesis explores how participation in EMs supports engagement and sustains it over time, finding that EMs help people integrate cognitive, emotional and behavioural dimensions of response, act as coping mechanisms that help prevent burnout, and broaden the scope of social action people feel able to take.
Emotional Methodologies for Climate Change Engagement [PhD]
2020
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This PhD thesis maps a range of what the author terms 'Emotional Methodologies' (EMs) - group work processes such as The Work that Reconnects, Active Hope and the Carbon Literacy Project - used by UK Civil Society Organisations to acknowledge and process the complex, often contradictory emotions raised by the climate crisis. Drawing on concepts of emotional habitus and emotional reflexivity, the thesis explores how participation in EMs supports engagement and sustains it over time, finding that EMs help people integrate cognitive, emotional and behavioural dimensions of response, act as coping mechanisms that help prevent burnout, and broaden the scope of social action people feel able to take.
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