for: transition - emotional pain of, degrowth - emotional pain of, Kristina Bogner

title: Coping with transition pain: An emotions perspective on phase-outs in sustainability transitions

• Kristina Bogner
• Barbara Kump
• Mayte Beekman
• Julia Wittmayer

date

HIGHLIGHTS

• introduce the idea of transition pain in transition-in-the-making
• explain how emotions in transitions are
  • process-dependent,
  • culturally and socially embedded and
  • political
• suggest a 'coping with transition pain' perspective for more integrated engagements with phase-outs

ABSTRACT

• With this perspective paper, we aim to raise awareness of and offer starting points for studying the role of emotions and associated behavioural responses to losses in relation to phase-outs.
• We start from a psychological perspective and explain how
  • losses due to phasing out dominant
    • practices,
    • structures, and
    • cultures
  • may threaten core psychological needs and lead to - what we introduce as - ‘transition pain’.
• We borrow insights from the psychological coping literature to explain that different forms of transition pain may elicit characteristic coping responses (e.g.
  • opposition,
  • escape,
  • negotiation),
• shaping
  • individual meaning-making and
  • behaviour
• in ongoing sustainability transitions.
• We then expand this psychological lens and present three additional perspectives, namely, that transition pain is
  • (1) dynamic and process-dependent,
  • (2) collectively shared and socially conditioned, and
  • (3) political.
• We discuss how a ‘coping with transition pain’ lens can contribute to a better understanding of
  • individual and collective meaning-making,
  • behaviour and agency in transitions as well as
  • a more emotion-sensitive governance of phase-outs.

SUMMARY

• It's good to have knowledge about the emotional aspects of transition as these challenging emotions constitute obstacles to transition.
• It is really a letting go process. High density fossil fuels has created a high energy lifestyle that we have become use to. When we no longer have access to high energy density fossil fuels, our life has to change quite radically.
• We are like a spoiled child that must now contend with the loss of what we took for granted. The politics of libertariansim is based on protecting our right to a high energy density lifestyle.
• We need to now how to deal with this loss, as it is very profound