Wicked Problems, Climate Action Plans, and the Politics of Good Feeling: A Comparative Analysis of Canadian Universities' Responses to Climate Change

ABSTRACT This comparative research explores the politics of emotions surrounding the wicked policy problem of climate action planning. Drawing on the empirical case of climate action plans developed by four Canadian universities, this article examines the discursive articulation of emotions in climate action plans and their implications for managing the uncertainty, complexity and conflict surrounding climate policy debates. This article reveals four emotion‐laden discourses that varied according to universities' institutional identities, place‐based geopolitical factors, and epistemological assumptions: Uncertain temporalities in climate action planning; inclusivity in policy development and enactment; pride in climate action; and optimism in changing climates. This article argues that climate action plans legitimize positive emotion norms and engage with a politics of good feeling, which can conceal power relations, reduce uncertainty, complexity and conflict in climate action planning, and provisionally tame the wicked policy problem of climate change.