Articles

The Climate Politics of Care Practices: A Conceptual and Political Exploration of More Than Human Atmospheric Care Under Conditions of Air Pollution

Authors

  • Sophie van Balen Erasmus School of Philosophy; Erasmus University College

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21827/krisis.43.1.37969

Keywords:

Care politics, Pollution, Air, More than human, Breath

Abstract

In the struggle for breathable air amid pollution and climate change, both resistance and inspiration can be found in ‘atmospheric care practices’ (Vine 2019). In this article, I embed these practices in a more than human political approach (Puig de la Bellacasa 2017). More than human atmospheric care practices work to undo toxic harm both on a material and social level while intimately involving human beings with more than human worlds. In so doing, they are demonstrative of different kinds of agency and political activity that open up alternative ways of relating and responding to climate change.

Author Biography

Sophie van Balen, Erasmus School of Philosophy; Erasmus University College

Sophie van Balen is PhD Candidate at Erasmus School of Philosophy and Lecturer Humanities at Erasmus University College. Her research project ‘Out of breath: towards a politics of breathability’, funded by NWO, brings together contemporary continental climate philosophy with feminist theory and politics. Next to her academic work, Sophie van Balen is head of programme at philosophical café Felix & Sofie and regularly moderates (public) philosophical conversations. She recently published ‘Becoming human in anthropogenic hothouses: Sloterdijk’s foam anthropology of breathability in times of atmospheric crisis’ (2021). The article ‘Sensing change, changing sense’, co-authored with dr. Irene van Oorschot, is forthcoming.

 

Published

2023-09-08

How to Cite

van Balen, Sophie. 2023. “The Climate Politics of Care Practices: A Conceptual and Political Exploration of More Than Human Atmospheric Care Under Conditions of Air Pollution”. Krisis | Journal for Contemporary Philosophy 43 (1):46-65. https://doi.org/10.21827/krisis.43.1.37969.