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DFG-Centre for Advanced Studies Imaginaria of Force

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Prof. Dr. Michael Schnegg

Curriculum

Prof. Dr. Michael Schnegg is an anthropologist at the University of Hamburg. He has conducted extensive ethnographic fieldwork in Mexico and Namibia. His current research explores what it is like to live a rural life in an increasingly urbanised and warming world. To this end, he is contributing to the development of a phenomenological anthropology that brings together philosophers and anthropologists to work towards an empirically grounded theorisation of pressing issues, including climate change. He co-founded the Hamburg Symposium on Philosophy and Anthropology with Thiemo Breyer (philosophy, Cologne University), which has become an important venue for these discussions. His work has been published in a wide range of journals in anthropology, sociology, economics, communication studies, geography and theoretical physics.

Publications (selection)

Research project: Climate Hope

In recent years, negative climate emotions such as anxiety, fear and despair have attracted the attention of scholars and the public alike. While these emotions may inspire climate action, they are also increasingly leading to mental health issues, social strain and political paralysis. Against this backdrop, there have been calls for more hope in the face of the climate crisis. The argument is that a society cannot remain in a state of panic without considerable psychological and social costs, and that hope is necessary to develop positive visions of the future. While my previous work (in collaboration with Julian Sommerschuh) explored the conditions under which climate hope can emerge, especially in the Global South, this project aims to demonstrate the effects that climate hope can have. To do so, I draw on phenomenological conceptualisations of hope (Gabriel Marcel) and related concepts, especially the notion of natality found in Hannah Arendt's work. Furthermore, I will consider indigenous theocratisations of hope, or more broadly, positive expectations to overcome stages of powerlessness and despair. Preliminary research indicates that these conceptions are strongly embodied, indicating the body parts in which hopefulness can grow and get stronger (such as the lungs or the heart).

Research results: Climate Hope

During my fellowship at the CAS “Imaginaria of Force,” I co-authored, together with Julian Sommerschuh, two connected articles that examine hope and patience as forms of force in times of ecological crisis. The point of departure is my long-term ethnographic research among Damara/ǂNūkhoen pastoralists in north-western Namibia, a region where colonial land dispossession, economic marginalization, and climate change threaten pastoral ways of life. The articles ask how force can be conceptualized when it does not appear as assertion, acceleration, or control, but as the capacity to remain capable of action under conditions of loss and uncertainty.

The first article develops a theory of practical hope. Drawing on Gabriel Marcel, we show that hope emerges where people find their possibilities blocked. Hope acts by liquefying disappointing facts, keeping the future open, and enabling new paths of action. In doing so, hope transforms not only situations but also the self: the Damara idea of a “strong heart” shows that the capacity to hope becomes bodily sedimented through repeated experiences of crisis, care, and renewed attempts to go on.

The second article defines patience as a form of ecological agency. Patience is not passivity here, but responsive attention to the rhythms of animals, pastures, water points, neighbours, and climatic processes. It enables forms of action based not on mastery, but on attunement and support. Taken together, the two articles show that imaginaries of force can also be found in slow and relational practices of enduring, caring, waiting, and hoping.