Fast slow: Imagining climate futures beyond the end of the world

Stephens, Angharad Closs

doi:10.1177/25148486261421784

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Fast slow: Imagining climate futures beyond the end of the world

Angharad Closs Stephens

Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space

Swansea University Author: Angharad Closs Stephens

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DOI (Published version): 10.1177/25148486261421784

Abstract

This article addresses the call to ‘act now’ in response to climate change, in a context where ‘end-thinking’ appears dominant in popular culture and climate activism. Building on literature from Geography and International Relations, I develop an argument against the linear, globalised accounts of...

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Published in:	Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space
ISSN:	2514-8486 2514-8494
Published:	SAGE Publications 2026
Online Access:	Check full text
URI:	https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa71507

first_indexed	2026-02-26T15:31:19Z
last_indexed	2026-03-18T05:40:34Z
id	cronfa71507
recordtype	SURis
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spelling	2026-03-17T16:38:55.7940598 v2 71507 2026-02-26 Fast slow: Imagining climate futures beyond the end of the world b949e66c7338fbd3f328eaf5b3f944a1 0000-0002-7765-7276 Angharad Closs Stephens Angharad Closs Stephens true false 2026-02-26 BGPS This article addresses the call to ‘act now’ in response to climate change, in a context where ‘end-thinking’ appears dominant in popular culture and climate activism. Building on literature from Geography and International Relations, I develop an argument against the linear, globalised accounts of a homogenous future present in some of these calls, and argue for a focus on the affective and everyday register, and how people go about making their lives viable. In making this argument, I draw philosophical insights from a performance work by artist Sonia Hughes called, ‘I am from Reykjavik’. In this work, Hughes builds a hut over the course of seven hours, to ask how, as a Black woman, she makes herself feel at home. Drawing inspiration from the ‘slow time’ of this building project, and by bringing work on environmental politics into conversation with affect theories, the article presents the concept of Fast slow. This concept, first developed to describe an architectural process by Lovett et al., captures a sense of impatience for change, with hesitation and ambivalence in terms of how we act for a better future. Overall, the article argues against the linear and depersonalised ideas about time and society prevalent in some elements of climate activism, and joins others who are calling for a deeper consideration of how we imagine the climate crisis. Thinking change and the future in a different register is important to avoid the climate crisis becoming weaponized as part of a polarized, populist politics. Journal Article Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space 0 SAGE Publications 2514-8486 2514-8494 Affect; climate change; future; politics; performance 5 3 2026 2026-03-05 10.1177/25148486261421784 COLLEGE NANME Biosciences Geography and Physics School COLLEGE CODE BGPS Swansea University SU Library paid the OA fee (TA Institutional Deal) This work was in part funded by a AHRC Impact Acceleration Account small grant, titled‘ Cosmopolitan communities in ‘left-behind’ places’. 2026-03-17T16:38:55.7940598 2026-02-26T15:23:16.9143370 Faculty of Science and Engineering School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Geography Angharad Closs Stephens 0000-0002-7765-7276 1 71507__36434__b5c2df7f505c48a48d0efd7307772b0c.pdf 71507.VoR.pdf 2026-03-17T16:36:36.1007114 Output 4082842 application/pdf Version of Record true © The Author(s) 2026. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. true eng https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
title	Fast slow: Imagining climate futures beyond the end of the world
spellingShingle	Fast slow: Imagining climate futures beyond the end of the world Angharad Closs Stephens
title_short	Fast slow: Imagining climate futures beyond the end of the world
title_full	Fast slow: Imagining climate futures beyond the end of the world
title_fullStr	Fast slow: Imagining climate futures beyond the end of the world
title_full_unstemmed	Fast slow: Imagining climate futures beyond the end of the world
title_sort	Fast slow: Imagining climate futures beyond the end of the world
author_id_str_mv	b949e66c7338fbd3f328eaf5b3f944a1
author_id_fullname_str_mv	b949e66c7338fbd3f328eaf5b3f944a1_***_Angharad Closs Stephens
author	Angharad Closs Stephens
author2	Angharad Closs Stephens
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doi_str_mv	10.1177/25148486261421784
publisher	SAGE Publications
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description	This article addresses the call to ‘act now’ in response to climate change, in a context where ‘end-thinking’ appears dominant in popular culture and climate activism. Building on literature from Geography and International Relations, I develop an argument against the linear, globalised accounts of a homogenous future present in some of these calls, and argue for a focus on the affective and everyday register, and how people go about making their lives viable. In making this argument, I draw philosophical insights from a performance work by artist Sonia Hughes called, ‘I am from Reykjavik’. In this work, Hughes builds a hut over the course of seven hours, to ask how, as a Black woman, she makes herself feel at home. Drawing inspiration from the ‘slow time’ of this building project, and by bringing work on environmental politics into conversation with affect theories, the article presents the concept of Fast slow. This concept, first developed to describe an architectural process by Lovett et al., captures a sense of impatience for change, with hesitation and ambivalence in terms of how we act for a better future. Overall, the article argues against the linear and depersonalised ideas about time and society prevalent in some elements of climate activism, and joins others who are calling for a deeper consideration of how we imagine the climate crisis. Thinking change and the future in a different register is important to avoid the climate crisis becoming weaponized as part of a polarized, populist politics.
published_date	2026-03-05T05:32:50Z
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Fast slow: Imagining climate futures beyond the end of the world

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