The affective topologies of the climate crisis: On the spatial intensities of the climate political protests in Lützerath,Germany

Abstract

The study analyzes the affective spaces and atmospheres that were operative within, and relevant to, climate-political protest practices in and around the village of Lützerath, Germany. In Lützerath, which will become the place of national and international climate justice struggles from 2020 to 2023, activists protested against coal-based energy production, the expansion of open-pit mines, and the destruction of villages and the environment. Drawing on qualitative ethnographic research between 2020 and 2023 and developing the notion of affective topologies, we show how protest practices were linked to spatializations and materializations of the affective atmospheres of the climate crisis. We analyzed how such spatio-affective relations influenced situated protest dynamics and contributed to shaping political subjectivities and capacities. We argue that climate political (protest) practices bring themselves into place, into play, and into power, precisely in and through their involvement in the (re)production of affective atmospheres/atmospheric spaces. The paper highlights the relevance of affect and emotion—and their spatialities—for emplaced climate protests.