Paula Aamli Doctoral Thesis Working Through Climate Grief: A Poetic Inquiry January 2021 P. Aamli Doctoral Thesis Working Through Climate Grief: A Poetic Inquiry Fig. 01: Cliff doodle, felt tip image reproduced on canvas, then photographed with feet (2019). Page 2 of 398 P. Aamli Doctoral Thesis Working Through Climate Grief: A Poetic Inquiry Submission coversheet- Individual’s work Ashridge Doctorate in Organizational Change 2017/20 PLEASE SUBMIT BY 12 MIDDAY (UK TIMING) Student Name: Paulette Elaine Aamli (known as Paula) Assignment: DOCTORAL THESIS Title of Assignment: Working through climate grief: A poetic inquiry. Submission Due Date: 22 April 2021 Word Count: 71,415 words vs limit of 65,000 words +/- 10% (Excluding: all text in tables of contents, acknowledgements, glossary and appendices) (Including: the main body of text including footnotes, quotation, captions for tables and figures, citations or similar) Your assessment will automatically be submitted to the Turnitin® Software, once your assessment has been uploaded to Canvas. I have read and understood the Ashridge Academic Misconduct Guidelines and declare that this written assessment is all my own work except where I indicated otherwise by proper use of quotes and references, following the referencing guidelines in the Participant Handbook. Student Signature: P.E. Aamli Date Submitted: 04 January 2021 Page 3 of 398 P. Aamli Doctoral Thesis Working Through Climate Grief: A Poetic Inquiry Fig. 02: Church, gallery, business district, beach – a photo-collage (2018 – 2020). Page 4 of 398 P. Aamli Doctoral Thesis Working Through Climate Grief: A Poetic Inquiry Acknowledgements I am grateful to my family-of-origin, to my friends and family-of-choice, and to my schools, churches, employers and host countries, past and present. You are my web-of-life. Thank you. And thank you above all to the (literally) bridge-building, world-circumnavigating CNB. I am grateful for the Ashridge Masters in Sustainability & Responsibility (AMSR) years. Gill Coleman, Chris Nichols, Stefan Cousquer, my AMSR6 peers and inquiry companions. For Christina Rossetti, allowing me to imagine my beloved grandmother leaving me a blessing as she crossed into the dark silences of death. For Chris Seeley, resolutely refusing a “grand heroic narrative” in her work and loving the knowing that comes with looking very closely. For Adrian Harris, seeking connection with the ancient tree at the centre of the Road Construction Protest Site, writing about the process of quietening self, settling in, sinking down, in order to “think with place”. For David Abram, enchanted by spiders weaving webs across the entrance to his hiding-place cave during the first downpour of the rainy season. I am grateful for the Ashridge Doctorate in Organisational Change (ADOC) years. Steve Marshall, Megan Reitz, Kate McArdle, Gill Coleman, my ADOC peers and co-inquirers. For Ellen Dissanayake, pointing to the process rather than the product in artmaking, the link to creating bonds of trust and community, the deep satisfaction of the effort to Make Special. For Suzi Gablik, celebrating ritual, connection and re-enchantment, insisting that art belongs outside the patrolled confines of the gallery; is not merely a wealth-and-status symbol. For John Rawls, arguing for a theory of justice, arguing that a just society is one that all would consent to live in, if they didn’t know what position in that society they would occupy. For Polly Higgins, who devoted herself to trying to establish that violence against the natural environment should be classed as the crime of Ecocide in human legal structures; Robyn Eckersley who has explored deep ecology, eco-feminism, and whether/how human political systems can be adjusted to take proper account of Nature; Mary Mellor, who introduced me to the overlapping and competing strands of thought in eco-feminism; and Sherilyn MacGregor, whose Handbook on Gender and Environment that has been a lifeline of clarity and wisdom. For the arts-based researchers – Patricia Leavy, Shaun McNiff, J. Gary Knowles, Ardra Cole – and the poetic inquirers – Carl Leggo, Monica Prendergast, Sandra Faulkner, Jane Piirto – who have shown me that poetry can be research; research, poetry; and papers, artful. For Terry Eagleton, who introduced me to the idea that poetry is artistic expression that pulls free from its original context, creating something that could be experienced by – anyone. And – my thanks to Susan Finley, Gill Coleman, Kathleen King and the Hult Ashridge team for your roles in my final viva voce (under the shadow of COVID-19); to Steve Marshall, supervisor, and wise voice of experience on routes into an artful knowing that catches sight of the ineffable and offers hope to a wounded world; to Clare Myatt, somatic coach extraordinaire; and to AF, my colleague, friend, and comrade/accomplice in various informal co-inquiries. Page 5 of 398 P. Aamli Doctoral Thesis Working Through Climate Grief: A Poetic Inquiry Page 6 of 398 P. Aamli Doctoral Thesis Working Through Climate Grief: A Poetic Inquiry Fig. 03: Excel spreadsheet as artful overview – poetic charting extract (2019). Page 7 of 398 P. Aamli Doctoral Thesis Working Through Climate Grief: A Poetic Inquiry Table of Contents Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................... 5 Abstract............................................................................................................................... 13 Introduction: Parameters for the Work and This Paper ........................................................ 15 0.1 My approach to a large-scale crisis and my purpose for this work ............................. 17 0.2 Characterising arts-based research and action research ........................................... 19 0.3 Poetic inquiry as a reflexive methodology .................................................................. 24 0.4 Key principles for this work (= principles for not being sure) ...................................... 27 0.5 Key features in the structure of this paper .................................................................. 30 0.6 Unpacking the artful representations that open this paper ......................................... 34 0.7 [Poem] You can’t say that .......................................................................................... 39 Chapter One: On Knowing .................................................................................................. 41 1.0 [Poem] Travel Prep (“In Vino, Veritas”) ...................................................................... 43 1.1 Unpacking the artful representations in Chapter One ................................................ 44 1.2 On knowing as situated and political .......................................................................... 47 1.3 Key quality criteria for this localised, particularised work ............................................ 52 1.4 Quality versus necessity: On structure and anxiety management .............................. 57 Chapter Two: Positioning My Change Motivation/s ............................................................. 62 2.0 [Poem] Town and country: A sestina ......................................................................... 64 2.1 Unpacking the artful representations in Chapter Two ................................................ 66 2.2 We are here. And all is not well. ................................................................................ 69 2.2.1 Climate crisis as “change challenge” ................................................................... 69 2.2.2 Climate crisis as “my” change challenge ............................................................. 70 2.2.3 Climate crisis and financial inclusion ................................................................... 72 2.2.4 A brief survey of the recent evidence on climate change ..................................... 74 2.2.5 Climate crisis and risk management .................................................................... 77 2.2.6 A role for capitalism? ........................................................................................... 79 Chapter Three: Modes of Inquiry – Action, Artful, Poetic ..................................................... 83 3.0 [Poem] The edge of the world .................................................................................... 84 Page 8 of 398 P. Aamli Doctoral Thesis Working Through Climate Grief: A Poetic Inquiry 3.1 Unpacking the artful representations in Chapter Three .............................................. 87 3.2 The basic premise/s of my inquiry ............................................................................. 90 3.2.1 Inquiring within an action research paradigm ...................................................... 90 3.2.2 Incorporating lived experience through an extended epistemology ..................... 92 3.2.3 Assigning value to artful (“arts-based”) research ................................................. 97 3.2.4 Uncovering meaning through poetic inquiry ......................................................... 99 3.2.5 Writing as a way of knowing .............................................................................. 103 Chapter Four: On Method/ology ........................................................................................ 112 4.0 [Poem] What is Good and Effective Poetry? A (Sort-of) Cento. ............................... 114 4.1 Unpacking