 |
Position Papers
https://doi.org/10.1080/14702541.2023.2197869
I distinguish this relation of ‘climate change
Boredom and the politics of climate change
Pages 133-141 | Received 28 Mar 2023, Accepted 29 Mar 2023, Published online: 16 Apr 2023
https://doi.org/10.1080/14702541.2023.2197869
ABSTRACT
In this position paper, I speculate on what we
In this position paper, I speculate on what we
might learn about the politics of climate change
if we stay with the possibility that boredom
might be part of how subjects encounter and
make sense of climate change.
I argue that boredom enacts an ethically and
I argue that boredom enacts an ethically and
politically ambivalent detachment from the
demand to act that accompanies urgency-
imbued vocabularies of crisis and emergency.
Whether boredom is a refusal to face climate
change, or a way of coping with and inhabiting
the overwhelming, being bored with climate
change allows existing attachments to fossil-
fuelled lives and futures to continue.
The event of climate change is ‘suspended, in
the sense that it is no longer affectively present.
I distinguish this relation of ‘climate change
suspension’ from two other ways of detaching
from the event of climate change – ‘climate
change denial’ and ‘climate change delay’.
Unlike in denial or delay, in suspension the
demand of climate change is held in abeyance,
not ended. It returns in ways that blur the line
between boredom and other affects.
In conclusion, I reflect on the affective politics
of climate change, and wonder about how
boredom could become part of a progressive
politics of climate change
