Emplacing watery encounters: listening, care, and embodied knowledge for sustainable climate futures

Abstract

The climate crisis is full of marginalized human and more-than-human voices who are systematically silenced by solution-oriented, universalizing discourses. Listening as method is the opposite of silencing; it is an experiential form of knowledge production that conveys intention and care when done cautiously. We posit climate studies can learn from feminist listening practices how to listen rather than silence. Reviewing relevant theory and case studies, we situate listening among diverse actors as becoming-in-common in-place through sound, with a focus on Arctic waters. Heightened awareness of acoustic ecologies internalizes sound to place, affecting our understanding of possible actions to enable sustainable climate futures.