Introduction: Geography’s ‘Emotional Turn’

Abstract

Clearly, our emotions matter. They affect the way we sense the substance of our past, present and future; all can seem bright, dull or darkened by our emotional outlook. Whether we crave emotional equilibrium, or adrenaline thrills, the emotional geographies of our lives are dynamic, transformed by our procession through childhood, adolescence, middle and old age, and by more immediately destabilising events such as birth or bereavement, or the start or end of a relationship. Whether joyful, heartbreaking or numbing, emotion has the power to transform the shape of our lives, expanding or contracting our horizons, creating new fissures or fixtures we never expected to find. But how do we articulate and negotiate such complex emotional landscapes?