Table_1_“Alchemizing Sorrow Into Deep Determination”: Emotional Reflexivity and Climate Change Engagement.pdf

There are a range of emotions and affects related to climate change, which are experienced by different publics at different times. These include grief, fear, hope, hopelessness, guilt, anxiety and anger. When unacknowledged or unprocessed, these emotions and affects can contribute to emotional paralysis and systems of socially organized denial, which can inhibit climate change engagement at individual and collective scales. Emotional reflexivity describes an awareness of the ways that people engage with and feel about issues, how this influences the actions they take and their perceptions of possible change. Emotional reflexivity could be developed through approaches that incorporate psychological and social engagements with climate change. In this paper I highlight knowledge gaps concerning how practices of emotional reflexivity relate to people becoming and remaining engaged with climate change and how emotions move and change through the questions of: what is the role of emotional reflexivity in engaging with climate change? and how do emotions associated with climate move and change?, responding to the gap, and associated question of what approaches could help develop emotional reflexivity around climate change?, in this paper I present a summary of research conducted in the UK during 2018–2020 with participants of two such approaches: the “Work That Reconnects”/“Active Hope” and the “Carbon Literacy Project”. I demonstrate how emotional reflexivity was developed through: 1. Awareness and acknowledgment of emotions, which helped to facilitate feedback between the dimensions of engagement and contributed to becoming engaged with climate change, and 2. Expression and movement of emotions, which enabled a changed relationship to, or transformation of emotions, which contributed to a more balanced and sustained engagement. Key findings included the relationship between ongoing practices of emotional reflexivity and engaging and sustaining engagement with climate change, and that some approaches helped to cultivate an emotional reflexivity which contributed to a “deep determination” and ongoing resource to act for environmental and social justice, and to live the future worth fighting for in the present. However, without ongoing practices, my research evidenced forms of defensive coping, ambivalence and vacillation, which impeded active engagement over time. These findings attest to the importance of attention to the dynamics and movement of emotions and affects relating to climate change.

与气候变化相关的情绪与情感（affects）种类繁多，不同公众群体在不同时段均会经历此类感受，包括悲伤、恐惧、希望、绝望、愧疚、焦虑与愤怒。若此类情绪与情感未被正视或未得到妥善梳理疏导，则可能引发情绪麻痹与社会结构性否认体系，进而阻碍个体与集体层面的气候变化行动参与。情绪反思性（emotional reflexivity）指个体对自身参与议题、产生相关感受的方式，以及该方式如何影响自身行为与对变革可能性的认知的觉察能力。可通过融合心理学与社会学视角的气候变化参与路径，培育情绪反思性。本文首先点明当前存在的知识空白：情绪反思性实践如何关联于人们参与并持续参与气候变化行动，以及情绪如何流动与变化；并围绕"情绪反思性在气候变化参与中发挥何种作用？""与气候变化相关的情绪如何流动与变化？"以及"哪些路径可助力培育气候变化相关的情绪反思性？"这一系列问题，呈现2018至2020年间在英国开展的一项研究综述，该研究招募了两类参与路径的受试者："联结性工作（Work That Reconnects）"/"积极希望（Active Hope）"与"碳素养项目（Carbon Literacy Project）"。本研究阐明了情绪反思性的培育路径：其一，对情绪的觉察与正视，该路径有助于推动参与维度间的反馈循环，助力个体投身气候变化行动；其二，情绪的表达与流动，该路径可促成个体与情绪的关系重构或情绪转变，进而实现更平衡且持久的行动参与。核心研究结果显示：持续开展的情绪反思性实践与气候变化行动参与及参与持续性之间存在关联；部分参与路径可助力培育情绪反思性，进而催生"坚定决心"，为环境与社会正义行动提供持续动力，并促使人们在当下践行值得为之奋斗的未来理念。但本研究同时发现，若缺乏持续的情绪反思性实践，则会出现防御性应对、态度矛盾与摇摆不定等情况，长期来看会阻碍积极的行动参与。上述研究结果充分证明，关注与气候变化相关的情绪与情感动态及流动过程具有重要意义。