@inproceedings{01H932KM78DPSGC2Z9NT021F3M,
  abstract     = {{Emotions increasingly find their way into transition studies though remain under-researched in the field. Recently, Martiskainen and Sovacool (2021) discussed emotions in sustainability transitions, and especially their potential to promote or impede certain transition processes. They apprehend the role of emotions in transitions predominantly in terms of emotional responses, e.g., to emerging innovations. They also categorize emotions in terms of their connection to objects, e.g.,  technologies. Doing so, we argue, they overlook broader and more comprehensive understandings of the role of emotions in transition processes. In this paper, therefore, we expand the framework on emotions as presented in the review paper by proposing two additional conceptualisations on the role that emotions (can) play in transitions. 
Our first approach draws on a number of various disciplines connected through their nonessentialist, nonreductionist and nonindividualist view on emotion as they demonstrate the social, cultural and  political reality of emotion (Lutz & Abu-Lughod, 1990). Acknowledging that emotions are in and about social life and (social) environments, thus inseparable from multiple, contested and shifting meanings, this discursive approach enables investigating how discourses on emotions and emotional discourses influence and shape transitions (Lutz & Abu-Lughod, 1990; Milton, 2002). Recognizing the socially constructed character of emotions opens up possibilities for their role in transition processes, as Norgaard (2011) illustrates in her account of climate change denial as socially organized through emotional norms. 
Our second approach builds on a transactional understanding of emotions which we take from pragmatism (Dewey & Bentley, 1949; Håkansson & Östman, 2022). We perceive emotions as existing and gaining their meaning in the transactions of people; emotions are influenced by and influence people’s backgrounds but also interpersonal, material, and institutional aspects (Van Poeck et al., 2020). Emotions, their perception and expression, differ thus between people depending on their transactions with their environment and their meaning and effect on transitions cannot be determined a priori. Rather than deeming emotions positive or negative, we analyse them in terms of their potential to unlock lock-ins and enable the finding of creative solutions. 
Both our approaches add to a more social understanding of emotions, moving away from the apprehension of emotions and their effects as situated mainly in the individual. This allows for more awareness of and conscious engagement with emotions’ political and cultural dimensions and possibilities. Proposing two additional approaches to (conceptualize) emotions and their role in (sustainability) transitions, we constructively engage with the review and its suggestion to further enquire about emotions in transition processes.}},
  author       = {{Höhle, Juliane and Vandenhole, Kimberley}},
  booktitle    = {{Network for Early Career Researchers in Sustainability Transitions Conference (NEST), Re-imagining Transitions Beyond established methods and concepts, Abstracts}},
  keywords     = {{Sustainability transitions,Emotions}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  location     = {{Dresden, Germany}},
  title        = {{On the role of emotions in sustainability transitions research: broadening the conceptual and analytical scope}},
  year         = {{2023}},
}