Emotions and the Anthropocene

Emotions and the Anthropocene demonstrates that the Anthropocene is not only an ecological crisis but also a transformation of the politics of sensibilities: how bodies are disciplined, emotions mobilised, and futures imagined. From disrupted mobilities and apocalyptic affects to decolonial genealogies of climate emotions, acts of resistance, and utopian care, each of the seven contributions from renowned researchers reveal emotions as key infrastructures of power and possibility. The challenge ahead is to understand, contest, and reconfigure these sensibilities—to politicise them—so that care, reciprocity, and justice can guide collective life amid planetary disruption. In these scenarios, the Anthropocene emerges not merely as an environmental condition but as a profound reconfiguration of the politics of sensibilities. Taken together, these contributions call for future inquiries that interrogate how sensibilities are shaped, governed, and resisted in the Anthropocene, and how alternative emotional infrastructures—rooted in care, reciprocity, and decolonial justice—can be nurtured to confront the intersecting crises of our time.