Browsing by Author "Guenette, Jeannine"

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    Dialectics of Eco-anxiety: Encountering Uncertainty and Negotiating (Im)possible Futures
    (2022-08-18) Guenette, Jeannine; Zhao, Xu; Wada, Kaori; Clark, Douglas
    Using a constructivist grounded theory method and taking a critical theory approach, this study aims to understand how people reporting eco-anxiety grapple with uncertainty about individual and collective futures in the context of the climate emergency. Data is drawn from public discussions about climate change in two online community forums hosted by the website Reddit. Findings are presented as dialectics representative of the multiple tensions and contradictions that frame and inform how people (primarily in the Global North) are currently making sense of the threat of climate change. These dialectics delineate several discursive dimensions of eco-anxiety and the meaning-making processes that people engage in to manage various forms of distress and how they (re)construct visions of viable futures. This project will contribute to sociological and psychological literature on the nature of eco-anxiety and the process of coping with uncertainty to enhance understandings of the impact of eco-anxiety on individual and collective well-being. In closing with a discussion of the implications for therapeutic practice, four pathways are suggested for stoking the burgeoning transformative process theorized here to be implicit in eco-anxiety.