Individuation and Affect in Human Geographies
Summary
Individuation and affect in human geographies explore how people and places co-constitute one another through dynamic processes of becoming and feeling. Drawing on the philosophy of individuation, particularly the work of Gilbert Simondon, scholars examine how subjects emerge in relation to social, material and technological milieus rather than existing as fixed entities. This emphasis on processual formation extends non-representational and feminist geographies, foregrounding the pre-personal forces—affects—that modulate human experience and spatial practices. Affects are conceived as bodily intensities that travel through assemblages of bodies, objects and environments, shaping collective atmospheres and individual subjectivities. The notion of the transindividual further underlines how identity and emotion are never purely personal but always shared, circulating across scales from intimate encounters to global networks. Research in this vein addresses issues of power and resistance in urban settings, the politics of vulnerability among marginalised groups, and the role of digital technologies in mediating subject formation. By attending to the interplay of affective flows and individuating processes, this field illuminates how social and spatial orders are continuously negotiated, offering insights for urban planning, community resilience and transformative activism.
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Individuation and Affect in Human Geographies publication trend
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Technical terms
Individuation: The ongoing process by which subjects and environments co-emerge through relational interactions rather than pre-existing categories.
Transindividuality: The shared dimension of individuation highlighting how identities and emotions circulate across collective assemblages.
Affect: Pre-personal intensities and forces that modulate perception, sensation and social atmospheres beyond conscious emotion.
References
- Geographies of vulnerability: Mapping transindividual geometries of identity and resistance. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers (2020).
- Thinking the unconscious beyond the psychoanalytic subject: Simondon, Murakami, and the transductive forces of the transindividual. Social & Cultural Geography (2022).
- Transindividual Affect: Gilbert Simondon's Contribution to a Posthumanist Theory of Emotions. Emotion Review (2022).
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