This work-in-progress presentation explores how communities in the Eurobodalla Shire (NSW) are reconstructing their environmental imaginaries and political engagement in the wake of the 2019-20 Black Summer fires. Drawing on political discourse theory, I explore how lived experiences of extreme fire events influence the ways communities imagine, narrate and act upon their changing environments. The empirical work, which began in early 2024, investigates how local understandings of recovery and resilience are being renegotiated, offering early insights into the transformation of environmental relations and political engagement in fire-affected communities.

About the Speaker

Dr Elise Remling is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Canberra’s Centre for Environmental Governance. She has a background in both academic and policy-oriented research in the field of climate change and sustainable development. Located at the interface between human geography, political science, and development studies, Elise’s work is driven by a keen interest to shine a critical light on the social and political implications of climate and environmental changes and of sustainability transitions.

Elise received a PhD in Environmental Sciences from Södertörn University, Sweden, in 2020. In her thesis she explored the politics of climate adaptation decision-making by focusing on the more subtle, discursive moves in public policy discourse. Drawing on Poststructuralist Discourse Theory, she looked specifically at the role of discursive power, depoliticization and the affective fantasies animating policy responses.

Prior to joining UC, Elise was a Researcher with the Climate Change and Risk Programme of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), an internationally renowned institute dedicated to research into conflict, armaments, arms control and disarmament. There her work focused on how climate and environmental change impact on human security, and on institutional responses to climate-related security risks, particularly in multilateral institutions such as the United Nations and European Union. Elise continues to engage with SIPRI as an Associate Senior Researcher.