Ecologies of Affect offers a synthetic introduction to the felt
dynamics of cities and the character of places. The contributors capture
the significance of affects including desire, nostalgia, memory, and
hope in forming the identity and tone of places. The critical
intervention this collection of essays makes is an active, consistent
engagement with the virtualities that produce and refract our idealized
attachments to place. Contributors show how place images, and attempts
to build communities, are, rather than abstractions, fundamentally tied
to and revolve around such intangibles. We understand nostalgia, desire,
and hope as virtual; that is, even though they are not material, they
are nevertheless real and must be accounted for. In this book, the
authors take up affect, emotion, and emplacement and consider them in
relation to one another and how they work to produce and are produced by
certain temporal and spatial dimensions.
The aim of the book is to inspire readers to consider space and place
beyond their material properties and attend to the imaginary places and
ideals that underpin and produce material places and social spaces. This
collection will be useful to practitioners and students seeking to
understand the power of affect and the importance of virtualities within
contemporary societies, where intangible goods have taken on an
increasing value.
