Eco-Spiritual Communities and Solarpunk Futures: Re-Storying Nature, Kinship, and the Climate Crisis
Publication information:
Abstract
This paper explores how alternative eco-spiritual communities use stories and storytelling to foster deep spiritual connections with the natural world, while challenging harmful dominant cultural, socio-political, and environmental paradigms. Focusing on the prevalence of the solarpunk genre within these communities—a cultural and aesthetic sci-fi movement that offers an optimistic, eco-centric vision of the future—the paper examines how such stories inspire counter-narratives to modernity that bridge the nature/culture divide while promoting more sustainable, equitable futures. Through ethnographic research, it highlights the transformative potential of these communities and the stories they share in addressing the climate crisis through new planetary ethics.
Presenter Biography
Sarah Best is a doctoral candidate in Religious Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University. She has an MRes is Social Anthropology from the University of St Andrews, and an MA in English and the Digital Humanities from Carleton University. Her research focuses on the intersections between spirituality, nature, and media.