Strategic climate communication and the crafting of affective atmospheres in vulnerable touristic places

    Research output: Contribution to conferenceAbstractpeer-review

    Abstract

    • Aims
    This research investigates how different ways of referring to anthropogenic climate change produce different sensory and affective perceptions of nature in an urban destination, and how such perceptions sustain or resist the branding strategy of such place. In doing so, it aims at showing that strategic climate communication works not only rhetorically at the level of representation, but also bodily and materially, implying a disciplining of the sensorium wherein people’s daily encounter with nature gets regulated and normalized accordingly.

    • Theoretical framework
    The theoretical framework adopts the non-representational notion of affective atmosphere (Anderson 2009, 2014) as well an understanding of communication as constitutive transmission of affect (Ashcraft 2021) in order to explore both how affective experience of a destination is spatially and aesthetically staged through strategic climate communication, as well as which human/non-human agents contribute to its sustainment and resistance.

    • Main research approach
    In order to research this, the project takes as a case study the touristic destination of Venice, Italy. Through sensory ethnographic observations (Pink 2009) and walking interviews (Degen & Rose 2012) it looks at how the conceptualization of sea-level rise infiltrates the everyday bodily experience of touristic premises and relates to the strategic making and experiencing of Venice.

    • Key arguments/findings
    The project finds that the concept of Acqua alta – a mundane, well-known and predictable Venetian phenomenon – used to describe exponential sea level rise in the area contributes to the strategic crafting of an affective atmosphere wherein encounters with water ought to be experienced as with a familiar, safe and tamed natural element. Consequently, unruly affective responses (i.e., fear, panic, displacement) at the encounter with water in public spaces are communicatively marginalized and negotiated
    Original languageEnglish
    Publication statusPublished - 2022 Oct
    EventAnnual conference the International Place Branding Association - nstitute of Public Management and Territorial Governance (IMPGT), Aix-en-provence, France
    Duration: 2022 Oct 122022 Oct 14
    Conference number: 6
    https://ipba.sciencesconf.org

    Conference

    ConferenceAnnual conference the International Place Branding Association
    Abbreviated titleIPBA
    Country/TerritoryFrance
    CityAix-en-provence
    Period2022/10/122022/10/14
    Internet address

    Subject classification (UKÄ)

    • Media and Communication Studies
    • Economic Geography

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