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Encountering Berlant part two: cruel and other optimisms

Encountering Berlant part two: cruel and other optimisms
Encountering Berlant part two: cruel and other optimisms

Part 2 of Encountering Berlant amplifies the promise of Lauren Berlant's influential concept of ‘cruel optimism’. Cruel optimism names a double-bind in which attachment to an ‘object’ holds out the promise of sustaining/flourishing, whilst simultaneously harming. The lines between harming, sustaining, damaging and flourishing blur, sometimes collapsing entirely. By holding together opposites the concept exemplifies and performs the centrality of ambivalence to Berlant's thought, as well as their orientation to overdetermination and incoherence. Geographers and others have found in the concept a way of understanding the intersection between affective and political economies in the crisis-present following the 2008 financial crisis. Together with Berlant's linked concepts such as ‘crisis ordinariness’ and ‘impasse’, cruel optimism has offered a way of understanding why detachment can be so difficult and how damaging conditions endure. Contributors begin from these starting points, amplifying the concept's promise: a new way of researching and writing about the reproduction of ordinary damage and harm. By writing from diverse encounters with Berlant's work, they move the concept in multiple directions, juxtaposing it with other optimisms across a variety of empirical scenes and locations. The result is a repository of what cruel optimism, and Berlant's mode of thinking-feeling more broadly, offer geographers and others.

ambivalence, cruel optimism, harm, Lauren Berlant
0016-7398
143-160
Anderson, Ben
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Awal, Akanksha
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Cockayne, Daniel
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Greenhough, Beth
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Linz, Jess
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Mazumdar, Anurag
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Nassar, Aya
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Pettit, Harry
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Roe, Emma J.
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Ruez, Derek
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Salas Landa, Mónica
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Secor, Anna
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Williams, Aelwyn
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Anderson, Ben
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Awal, Akanksha
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Cockayne, Daniel
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Greenhough, Beth
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Linz, Jess
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Mazumdar, Anurag
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Nassar, Aya
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Pettit, Harry
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Roe, Emma J.
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Ruez, Derek
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Salas Landa, Mónica
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Secor, Anna
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Williams, Aelwyn
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Anderson, Ben, Awal, Akanksha, Cockayne, Daniel, Greenhough, Beth, Linz, Jess, Mazumdar, Anurag, Nassar, Aya, Pettit, Harry, Roe, Emma J., Ruez, Derek, Salas Landa, Mónica, Secor, Anna and Williams, Aelwyn (2023) Encountering Berlant part two: cruel and other optimisms. Geographical Journal, 189 (1), 143-160. (doi:10.1111/geoj.12493).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Part 2 of Encountering Berlant amplifies the promise of Lauren Berlant's influential concept of ‘cruel optimism’. Cruel optimism names a double-bind in which attachment to an ‘object’ holds out the promise of sustaining/flourishing, whilst simultaneously harming. The lines between harming, sustaining, damaging and flourishing blur, sometimes collapsing entirely. By holding together opposites the concept exemplifies and performs the centrality of ambivalence to Berlant's thought, as well as their orientation to overdetermination and incoherence. Geographers and others have found in the concept a way of understanding the intersection between affective and political economies in the crisis-present following the 2008 financial crisis. Together with Berlant's linked concepts such as ‘crisis ordinariness’ and ‘impasse’, cruel optimism has offered a way of understanding why detachment can be so difficult and how damaging conditions endure. Contributors begin from these starting points, amplifying the concept's promise: a new way of researching and writing about the reproduction of ordinary damage and harm. By writing from diverse encounters with Berlant's work, they move the concept in multiple directions, juxtaposing it with other optimisms across a variety of empirical scenes and locations. The result is a repository of what cruel optimism, and Berlant's mode of thinking-feeling more broadly, offer geographers and others.

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Accepted/In Press date: 2 November 2022
e-pub ahead of print date: 25 December 2022
Published date: 1 March 2023
Additional Information: Funding Information: Ben Anderson: Huge thanks to Helen F Wilson for careful, critical and supportive editorial comments, and lots of friends for discussions over the years around cruel optimism. Daniel Cockayne and Derek Ruez: Derek acknowledges and appreciates funding from the Academy of Finland Research Council on Culture and Society (decision no. 326648). Aya Nassar: I wish to acknowledge the many conversations with Mohammed Ezzeldin which find their way, albeit always imperfectly, in this piece. Aelwyn Williams: I would like to thank Dr Angharad Closs-Stephens and other colleagues for introducing me to myriad new ways of thinking and writing about dementia and community as part of an Economic and Social Research Council-funded PhD. Akanksha Awal: I would like to thank my interlocutors, and in particular Priyanka, who generously shared their lives, losses and laughter with me. This research was supported by the Economic and Social Research Council, and St John's College, Oxford. Mónica Salas Landa: I would like to express my gratitude to the residents of Poza Rica, particularly oil workers, for sharing their time, knowledge, and experiences with me. I am also thankful to Lauren Berlant because their work helped me account for those ‘fantasies of the good life’ that have helped produce the crude landscapes that oil extraction has left behind. By encountering Berlant's work, I reencountered the field. Financial support for my research in Mexico was provided by the Wenner-Gren Foundation, the Mexican National Council for Science and Technology (CONACYT), and by Cornell University's Atkinson Centre for a Sustainable Future. Harry Petit: I would like to thank Lauren Berlant for inspiring me to intricately examine the practices and attachments which enable people to sustain liveable lives. I am deeply indebted to all those who participated in the research, as well as numerous supervisors and mentors who have read work and engaged in discussions along the way. The research was funded by an Economic and Social Research Council Studentship and Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship, which are gratefully acknowledged. Anurag Mazumdar: I wish to thank Professor Cameron McCarthy, Theodora Kourkoulou and the wonderful colleagues who deliberated on Lauren Berlant's ideas as part of our reading group at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. I also appreciate the generous funding of the IJURR Foundation for this research. Beth Greenhough and Emma Roe: This work was supported by the Wellcome Trust, grant number 205393/Z/16/Z. Funding Information: Ben Anderson: Huge thanks to Helen F Wilson for careful, critical and supportive editorial comments, and lots of friends for discussions over the years around cruel optimism. Daniel Cockayne and Derek Ruez: Derek acknowledges and appreciates funding from the Academy of Finland Research Council on Culture and Society (decision no. 326648). Aya Nassar: I wish to acknowledge the many conversations with Mohammed Ezzeldin which find their way, albeit always imperfectly, in this piece. Aelwyn Williams: I would like to thank Dr Angharad Closs‐Stephens and other colleagues for introducing me to myriad new ways of thinking and writing about dementia and community as part of an Economic and Social Research Council‐funded PhD. Akanksha Awal: I would like to thank my interlocutors, and in particular Priyanka, who generously shared their lives, losses and laughter with me. This research was supported by the Economic and Social Research Council, and St John's College, Oxford. Mónica Salas Landa: I would like to express my gratitude to the residents of Poza Rica, particularly oil workers, for sharing their time, knowledge, and experiences with me. I am also thankful to Lauren Berlant because their work helped me account for those ‘fantasies of the good life’ that have helped produce the crude landscapes that oil extraction has left behind. By encountering Berlant's work, I reencountered the field. Financial support for my research in Mexico was provided by the Wenner‐Gren Foundation, the Mexican National Council for Science and Technology (CONACYT), and by Cornell University's Atkinson Centre for a Sustainable Future. Harry Petit: I would like to thank Lauren Berlant for inspiring me to intricately examine the practices and attachments which enable people to sustain liveable lives. I am deeply indebted to all those who participated in the research, as well as numerous supervisors and mentors who have read work and engaged in discussions along the way. The research was funded by an Economic and Social Research Council Studentship and Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship, which are gratefully acknowledged. Anurag Mazumdar: I wish to thank Professor Cameron McCarthy, Theodora Kourkoulou and the wonderful colleagues who deliberated on Lauren Berlant's ideas as part of our reading group at the University of Illinois, Urbana‐Champaign. I also appreciate the generous funding of the IJURR Foundation for this research. Beth Greenhough and Emma Roe: This work was supported by the Wellcome Trust, grant number 205393/Z/16/Z. Publisher Copyright: The information, practices and views in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG). © 2022 The Authors. The Geographical Journal published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers).
Keywords: ambivalence, cruel optimism, harm, Lauren Berlant

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 474034
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/474034
ISSN: 0016-7398
PURE UUID: 6d3e3692-edf9-4516-bb48-80ec675b2c3c
ORCID for Emma J. Roe: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-4674-2133

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Date deposited: 09 Feb 2023 17:47
Last modified: 18 Mar 2024 03:07

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Contributors

Author: Ben Anderson
Author: Akanksha Awal
Author: Daniel Cockayne
Author: Beth Greenhough
Author: Jess Linz
Author: Anurag Mazumdar
Author: Aya Nassar
Author: Harry Pettit
Author: Emma J. Roe ORCID iD
Author: Derek Ruez
Author: Mónica Salas Landa
Author: Anna Secor
Author: Aelwyn Williams

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