The Indoor People’s Enchanted Ecologies

Abstract

Contrary to the taken-for-granted dictum in nature politics and in public media that “loving nature prompts care,” this article considers less intuitive relations between love and ethics. Through the analysis of different enactments of natures in Denmark and a reading of Jane Bennett’s Enchantment of Modern Life, the article captures how sensibilities and moralities swing from anethical moments to affective forms of responsibility. By comparing walks at a recreational beach with activists’ campaigns at a peri-urban commons and a climate activist march in the capital center, Cecilie Rubow proposes, inspired by Bennett, to think of a variation of chords of wonder and ethics. Dissonantly, the chords of the enchanted ecologies range from magical moments in remote nature to love and respect for co-living plants and animals, and to the perplexing and motivational awareness of one’s entwinement with the whole planet. This reconceptualization of enchantment speaks to the depth of the ecological crises.