Climate geopoetics between critique and coordination

Abstract

This commentary engages with formulation of climate geopoetics and the subsequent forum by placing these debates in dialogue with the activities of the Poetry Institute of China (PIC). While geopoetics has been framed as an experimental and critical practice that resists epistemic mastery and foregrounds affective, situated forms of knowing, the PIC offers a contrasting model in which poetry is mobilised within frameworks of environmental governance. Drawing on examples of national poetry campaigns, public programmes, and spatial initiatives, the commentary examines how geopoetic practice is reshaped when embedded in policy-driven contexts. It argues that geopoetics should be understood as a plural and context-dependent field, capable of operating both as a site of critique and as an instrument of communication and mobilisation. In doing so, it highlights the need to attend to the political and institutional conditions under which creative practices engage climate change.