Ontological Security, Globalization, and Geographical Imagination

Helbrecht, Ilse; Dobrusskin, Janina; Genz, Carolin; Pohl, Lucas

doi:10.4324/9781003036159-22

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…This paper is part of a broader research project that focuses on the influence of geographical imaginations on the establishment of ontological security (see also Helbrecht et al, 2021). Introduced by the psychiatrist Ronald D. Laing (1960) and prominently reinvented by the sociologist Anthony Giddens (1991), the concept of ontological security has been used in a variety of fields to capture the social, material, and in our case, environmental conditions necessary for people to be, become and remain psychologically healthy 2 .…”

Section: Imag(inari)es Of Nature and Ontological Security In Vancouve...mentioning

confidence: 99%

The love of nature: Imaginary environments and the production of ontological security in postnatural times

Pohl

Helbrecht

2022

Geography and Environment

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The existence of nature is vehemently called into question in the Anthropocene. The standard image of nature as a pristine, harmonious, and stable background no longer holds, especially as ecological changes increasingly penetrate the collective consciousness. Consequently, there has been growing interest in the psychological effects of this end of nature. A recent wave of scholarship shows how climate change and the Anthropocene more generally affect people's daily lives and present significant threats to psychic well‐being. This paper follows on from these debates. In contrast, however, we ask if and how nature is still considered as providing a subjective sense of (ontological) security today. We argue that, even under postnatural conditions, nature still maintains an imaginary existence in the social reality of the subject. We address this argument empirically by focusing on everyday life perceptions of nature in the city of Vancouver, British Columbia, and theoretically by following the psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan. Drawing on image‐based interviews (photo‐elicitation), we demonstrate that a psychoanalytic approach to imaginary environments allows us to understand why people state that they love nature even though it does not exist. We show how this love works by pointing out how nature is considered as (m)other and, through this, engaged as a place to retreat and escape from the burdens of everyday life while being perceived from a certain distance. In conclusion, we emphasise the broader political consequences of the imaginary existence of nature and call for further engagement with the persistence of nature's fantasy in times when nature seems to no longer fit the purpose.

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Section: Imag(inari)es Of Nature and Ontological Security In Vancouve...mentioning

confidence: 99%

The love of nature: Imaginary environments and the production of ontological security in postnatural times

Pohl

Helbrecht

2022

Geography and Environment

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“…(Laing, 1983(Laing, [1960, p. 47) Anthony Giddens (1991Giddens ( , 1996 hat das Konzept der ontologischen Sicherheit in den Kanon der Geistes-und Sozialwissenschaften übertragen, indem er Fragen subjektiver Verunsicherung und Identitätskrisen ausgelöst durch Globalisierungsprozesse mit dem Begriff der ontologischen (Un)Sicherheit untersuchte. Nachfolgend fand das Konzept in weiteren Teilen der sozial-, politik-und raumwissenschaftlichen Forschung Verwendung: etwa in den Housing Studies (Colic-Peisker, 2010;Dupuis und Thorns, 1998;Genz und Helbrecht, 2022;Hiscock et al, 2001;Kearns et al, 2000;Pohl et al, 2022;Saunders, 1990), Politikwissenschaften (Browning, 2019;Homolar und Scholz, 2019;Mitzen, 2006b, a;Steele, 2008;Steele und Homolar, 2019) und der Humangeographie (Bondi, 2014;Botterill et al, 2019;Browning, 2018;Genz et al, 2021;Helbrecht et al, 2021;Sullivan und Akhtar, 2019;Vaughan-Williams und Pisani, 2020).…”

Section: Ontologische Sicherheit Und (Imaginäre) Naturunclassified

Imaginäre Naturverhältnisse: Psychoanalytische Einsichten zur Herstellung ontologischer Sicherheit in Berlin, Vancouver und Singapur

Pohl

Helbrecht²

2022

Geogr. Helv.

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Abstract. A central diagnosis driving research around social relations of nature is the thesis of the “end of nature”. In an era marked by climate change and global warming, the image of nature as a pristine and stable foundation of human existence seems outdated. In light of this, recent scholarship demonstrates how environmental changes and conflicts increasingly affect people's daily lives and present significant threats to psychic well-being. In contrast, in this paper we investigate the conditions under which nature continues to function as an effective source of `ontological security'. As part of an international comparative research project that engages geographical imaginaries of security and insecurity in Berlin, Vancouver, and Singapore, we analyze how nature is imagined by city dwellers as an object of desire that offers a place of refuge to escape the burdens from urban everyday life. Against this background, we emphasize imaginary nature as a powerful everyday source for the ontological security of subjects even under today's postnatural conditions.

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Need for shelter, demand for housing, desire for home: a psychoanalytic reading of home-making in Vancouver

et al. 2020

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Ontological Security, Globalization, and Geographical Imagination

Cited by 4 publications

References 11 publications

The love of nature: Imaginary environments and the production of ontological security in postnatural times

The love of nature: Imaginary environments and the production of ontological security in postnatural times

Imaginäre Naturverhältnisse: Psychoanalytische Einsichten zur Herstellung ontologischer Sicherheit in Berlin, Vancouver und Singapur

Need for shelter, demand for housing, desire for home: a psychoanalytic reading of home-making in Vancouver

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