Creating the conditions for social justice: recognising heritage professionals’ emotions in climate change work

The chapter explores a series of interviews and a workshop on the topic of climate change, conducted with heritage professionals between 2015-17 in the UK and The Republic of Kiribati. It argues that social and climate justice closely relates to activism, an approach requiring a potentially different way of being at work which acknowledges and accepts that personal vulnerabilities and emotions cannot be ignored. The interviews highlight the profound existential challenges that climate change elicits within the heritage sector, concerning the impermanence of heritage, organisational barriers and whether heritage practitioners have capacity to respond to climate change in an effective way. Overall, the chapter considers that action around social and climate justice requires heritage organisations as ‘peopled’ spaces to engage with a process of critical self-reflection, involving potentially uncomfortable questions on whether heritage workers are adequately supported to undertake such emotionally laden work. The chapter argues that ignoring workforce emotions risks limiting the extent that heritage sector can ultimately contribute to social justice.