High as a kite: exploring the positive emotion of interest through extreme sporting in the arctic

Abstract

The emotion of interest creates an urge to explore an external world, to become involved and to learn. But as our relationships to objects of interest mature, they also become more important to the self. So is it that we develop lifelong pursuits of academic writing, music or kiting, as ways of finding meaningful happiness. This article explores the pivotal role interest has in the formation of new knowledge; what interest feels like, the agency it has and how it is performed. Expansions are made to contemporary interest theory by underlining the importance of spatiality and places. Furthermore, as an analytic autoethnography, it explores how interest creates powerful place attachment processes and feelings of belonging, which also influences representation. The latter is recognised here by being both analytic and evocative in order to represent interest more nuanced.