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Cultural Objects as Transitional: Navigating Hope and Despair
Manali Arora1, Mona Jamshidi Nasab2, Tom Fielder3
1Ambedkar University Delhi, India; 2The University of Essex; 3Birkbeck
In times of crisis, communities often turn to culturally related objects—both tangible or intangible—to negotiate the emotional spectrum of hope and despair. Drawing on psychoanalytic ideas of transitional objects (Winnicott, 1953), this working session will explore how culturally related objects serve as both containers of anxiety and repositories of resilience. These culturally related objects can function as transitional spaces, enabling individuals and groups to channel fear, uncertainty, and longing into meaningful practices that foster collective engagement and reparation.
From communal rituals to personal tokens imbued with historical and symbolic significance, culturally related objects play a dual role. On one hand, they embody aspirations for safety, healing, and transformation, reinforcing social bonds and offering continuity across generations. On the other, they often reflect deeper societal fissures and anxieties, surfacing the collective need to confront crises—whether political, environmental, or psychological. By holding both hope and despair, these objects illuminate the intricate ways communities cope with the pressures of polycrisis.
Drawing on examples from diverse cultural contexts—such as ceremonies that facilitate collective mourning and iconic landscapes that become vessels of cultural identity—the session will employ experiential exercises and interactive dialogues to explore how cultural artefacts mediate psychosocial well-being. Participants will investigate the creative possibilities for harnessing these objects to inspire collaboration and resilience, while also examining potential limitations, such as over-reliance on symbolism that might delay deeper structural transformations.
By focusing on culturally related objects as pivotal sites where crisis meets opportunity, this working session aligns with the conference theme, “Hope and Despair: Crisis and Opportunity.” It shows how these symbolic objects enable communities to navigate uncertainty, hold collective tensions, and transform despair into a shared sense of possibility.
