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Emotions and Affect in Recent Human Geography: Steve Pile
Emotions and Affect in Recent Human Geography: Steve Pile
Emotions and Affect in Recent Human Geography: Steve Pile
geography
Steve Pile
This paper seeks to examine both how emotions have been explored in emotional geo-
graphy and also how affect has been understood in affectual geography. By tracing out
the conceptual influences underlying emotional and affectual geography, I seek to
understand both the similarities and differences between their approaches. I identify
three key areas of agreement: a relational ontology that privileges fluidity; a privileging
of proximity and intimacy in their accounts; and a favouring of ethnographic methods.
Even so, there is a fundamental disagreement, concerning the relationship – or non-
relationship – between emotions and affect. Yet, this split raises awkward questions for
both approaches, about how emotions and affect are to be understood and also about
their geographies. As importantly, mapping the agreements and disagreements within
emotional and affectual geography helps with an exploration of the political implica-
tions of this work. I draw upon psychoanalytic geography to suggest ways of address-
ing certain snags in both emotional and affectual geography.
Faculty of Social Sciences, Geography Discipline, Open University, Milton Keynes MK6 7AA
email: S.J.Pile@open.ac.uk