ABSTRACT
Atmosphere works to make a version of the nation that, while not explicitly about politics, nevertheless attaches positive or celebratory moods to events or things defined as national. This chapter proposes an agenda for addressing what some of this work may be, particularly in response to existing scholarship in human geography. It explores how thinking atmospherically can shed light on politics and its affective charge, and the implications of this for imagining possible futures; or, put differently, what thinking atmospherically might make possible as people consider what they want to happen next. The chapter argues that atmosphere can work conceptually to draw together many of the elements that make up how people understand mental, emotional and material worlds in their ongoing configurations. It focuses on what atmospheres make possible, and therefore why they remain both a useful analytical frame and a potential path to action.
