Navigating the spaciousness of uncertainties posed by global challenges: A senses of place perspective [Chapter 25]

Abstract

We opened this volume with sobering stories of the dire global challenges before us. Indeed, one would not be hard pressed to find stories of the urgency of our various environmental and social crises. While we wrote this book, the COVID-19 pandemic raged, towns in the Arctic reached unprecedented temperatures, countless hectares of forests fell while fossil fuels continued to be violently extracted from the earth, and Black, Indigenous and people of colour continued to be exploited and oppressed. Yet, despite all this, or rather because of it, we wish to begin our conclusion with hope and determination. Drawing on Solnit (2016), we believe that there is a spaciousness in the uncertainties posed by the challenges before us in that they offer new possibilities for being, thinking and acting - for renewal and purposeful redirection in our trajectory - and it is through a reawakened awareness of our rich and dynamic relationships to place that we can find a better way forward.

Citation

Manzo, Lynne C.; Williams, Daniel R.; Raymond, Christopher M.; Di Masso, Andres; von Wirth, Timo; Devine-Wright, Patrick. 2021. Navigating the spaciousness of uncertainties posed by global challenges: A senses of place perspective [Chapter 25]. In: Raymond, C.M.; Manzo, L.C.; Williams, D.R.; Di Masso, A.; von Wirth, T., eds. Changing senses of place: Navigating global challenges. Cambridge University Press. p. 331-347. Online: http://www.cambridge.org/9781108477260.