Affective politics and neoliberal subjectivities in ‘left behind’ places

Counter-narrating regional decline within/from Finland’s ‘Capital of Pessimism

Dados Bibliográficos

ID7153166
AutoresGrete Gansauer (0000-0002-4016-518X, University of Wyoming, autor correspondente), Johanna Lilius (0000-0002-3002-3997, Aalto University), R Adams (0000-0001-6254-0385, University of Vienna), Ria-Maria Adams (0000-0002-5048-4600)
Ano2025
Volume43
Fascículo6
Páginas1140-1157
Data de publicação2025-09-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoEnvironment and Planning C Politics and Space (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 2399-6544 • E-ISSN: 2399-6552
EditoraSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/23996544251317099
OpenAlexW4407751912
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas4
Referências citadas35

Increased scholarly and political interest in the ‘geographies of discontent’ demands attention not only to the material—but also to the emotional and discursive—dimensions of regional inequality. Amidst growing investigation into the affective geographies of depopulation and post-industrial life, little empirical work yet explores how ‘left behind’ communities themselves contribute to broader political discourses concerning deprived places. This paper asks: what potentials do local initiatives have to transform endogenous and exogenous discourses of decline? Drawing on J.K. Gibson-Graham, we analyze the case of the Pessimists Association in Puolanka, Finland—an artists’ initiative which parodies their shrinking town through comedic performance art. Through qualitative and ethnographic methods, we find that the Pessimists’ humorous and joy-full counter-narrative of regional decline reconfigures affective norms toward shrinkage by centering abundance, belonging, and acceptance. Yet by capitalizing on Puolanka’s ‘slow death,’ the project privileges entertainment/exchange-value for exogenous audiences over its cathartic/use-value for Puolanka residents. In all, this case details how entrenched neoliberal subjectivities thwart a wholly reimagined ‘politics of possibility’ for ‘left behind’ places. But, more hopefully, it also suggests strong potential for local initiatives’ affective resonance to transform discourses of decline beyond their grassroots

Economic growth · Economics · Ethnography · Gentrification · Grassroots · Narrative · Pessimism · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Gender Studies · Geographies of human-animal interactions · History · Law · Rural development and sustainability · Urban Planning and Governance