Environment, Senses and Emotions- Sensory Aesthetics of the More-than-Human in Crisis

This book urges readers to recognize that the more-than-human is in crisis and offers a framework for sensory environmental sustainability, bringing new perspectives from related disciplines. It also searches for ways to evoke pro-environmental behaviors via the senses, foregrounding the interconnectedness of beings and places. This book foregrounds the role of the senses in understanding the more-than-human. It explicates the aesthetics of the more-than-human, emphasizing the critical situation it faces today through multiple environmental crises, including pollution, climate change, and species extinction. Drawing on perspectives from the environmental humanities, sensory studies, and visual culture studies, Sensory Aesthetics of the More-than-Human in Crisis contributes to ongoing scholarly attempts to understand the more-than-human in a time of profound change. The volume brings together case studies focused on air, fire, plants, and animals, demonstrating how sensory engagement can mobilize human action and promote a new philosophy toward the more-than-human world. Furthermore, the book adds to climate-conscious research methodologies and ethical approaches, with each chapter helping to formulate frameworks for building a better understanding of such crises, and forging community solidarities from an interdisciplinary perspective within sensory studies. This essential volume is intended for researchers across more-than-human studies, the environmental humanities, sensory studies, and visual culture studies, as well as policymakers and the public seeking to understand how the senses relate to environmental harm and how to productively address our ongoing crises.