ABSTRACT
Recent years have seen an explosion of work influenced by theories of ‘affect’ take place within geography (Anderson 2004; 2005; 2006; Carter and McCormack 2006; Dewsbury 2000; McCormack 2002; 2003; 2005; Saldanha 2005; Thrift 2004). These ideas have sought to open up a space for thinking about how bodies may affect other bodies and be affected by them in ways that are not prescribed or proscribed in advance. Such thinking has sought to enable the envisioning of new modes of practice and new ways of relating to other people, places, situations and material things. It has sought to offer insights into the creativity involved in the processes of making community and of negotiating (social) encounters. In offering such potentialities, much of this work also raises questions about how best to conceptualise social change and about the role of critique in advancing such change (see Anderson 2004; 2006; Massumi 2002).
