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Out of Time? Climate Change, Capitalist Temporalities, and Everyday Life in 21st Century Greater Manchester

Harrison, Hannah Lillian LU (2025) HEKM51 20251
Department of Human Geography
Human Ecology
Abstract
Out of Time? is an empirical study in environmental temporalities. With a geographic focus on Greater Manchester in the United Kingdom (UK), this paper addresses how this specific locality – characterised by a rich history of workers’ struggle, industry and, more recently, climate action – displays features of the concept of “fatal confusion” brought into the academic discourse by Michelle Bastian in 2012. Through interviews conducted over 7 weeks (15th January 2025 to 5th March 2025), Out of Time? finds that this “fatal confusion” is a key factor in hindering meaningful climate action, with individuals struggling to reconcile the urgency of climate change with entrenched socio-economic structures. The research reveals “fatal confusion” as... (More)
Out of Time? is an empirical study in environmental temporalities. With a geographic focus on Greater Manchester in the United Kingdom (UK), this paper addresses how this specific locality – characterised by a rich history of workers’ struggle, industry and, more recently, climate action – displays features of the concept of “fatal confusion” brought into the academic discourse by Michelle Bastian in 2012. Through interviews conducted over 7 weeks (15th January 2025 to 5th March 2025), Out of Time? finds that this “fatal confusion” is a key factor in hindering meaningful climate action, with individuals struggling to reconcile the urgency of climate change with entrenched socio-economic structures. The research reveals “fatal confusion” as an aggravating force for those demonstrating implicatory denial, but that despite this, there remain sites of resistance where temporalities aligned to ecological rather than economic needs continue to be adopted by Mancunians today. The study concludes that fully addressing “fatal confusion” requires a decentring of the Western notion of linear time as an absolute (“chrononormativity”) and a focus instead on other temporalities revealed through climate change influence actions taken at the grassroots level. (Less)
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author
Harrison, Hannah Lillian LU
supervisor
organization
course
HEKM51 20251
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
keywords
Climate change, temporality, neoliberalism, hauntology, fatal confusion, Manchester, slow violence, climate action
language
English
id
9188480
date added to LUP
2025-07-31 13:12:47
date last changed
2025-07-31 13:12:47
@misc{9188480,
  abstract     = {{Out of Time? is an empirical study in environmental temporalities. With a geographic focus on Greater Manchester in the United Kingdom (UK), this paper addresses how this specific locality – characterised by a rich history of workers’ struggle, industry and, more recently, climate action – displays features of the concept of “fatal confusion” brought into the academic discourse by Michelle Bastian in 2012. Through interviews conducted over 7 weeks (15th January 2025 to 5th March 2025), Out of Time? finds that this “fatal confusion” is a key factor in hindering meaningful climate action, with individuals struggling to reconcile the urgency of climate change with entrenched socio-economic structures. The research reveals “fatal confusion” as an aggravating force for those demonstrating implicatory denial, but that despite this, there remain sites of resistance where temporalities aligned to ecological rather than economic needs continue to be adopted by Mancunians today. The study concludes that fully addressing “fatal confusion” requires a decentring of the Western notion of linear time as an absolute (“chrononormativity”) and a focus instead on other temporalities revealed through climate change influence actions taken at the grassroots level.}},
  author       = {{Harrison, Hannah Lillian}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Out of Time? Climate Change, Capitalist Temporalities, and Everyday Life in 21st Century Greater Manchester}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}