Abstract Feelings of sentimental affection for local environmental features are common—but there are good reasons to doubt that such feelings could ground a radical eco-politics. Thinking with the work of anthropologist Anna Tsing, I develop an account of “undomesticated love” that allows us to take on board forms of local eco-affection while avoiding concerns around provincialism, paternalism, and political irrelevance. Undomesticated love culminates in the work of collective action, oriented toward flourishing multispecies relationships. What’s more, this ethic primes practitioners for the work of political insurgence. I offer a radical political ethic—which I term the “virtues of articulation”—that is prefigured by undomesticated love. Ultimately, this article articulates an ecological vision beyond ruination—and a politics offering the hope of messy, imperfect love as a mode of life.
Max Foley-Keene (Sun,) studied this question.