Care without leaders: the collective powers of affective leadership

Abstract

The final version of this chapter is published in Leah Tomkins (ed.) (2020) Paradox and Power in Caring Leadership, pp. 199-210. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar. Today's leadership problem is really a symptom of a profound historical transformation, one that is currently in midstream-modern organizational forms have been destroyed and adequate replacements have not yet been invented. (Hardt and Negri, 2017, p. 8) In this chapter we articulate a concept of 'affective leadership' based on the capacity to increase our collective powers of action. Doing so, we show how leaderless movements and organizations can foster their participants' powers of action by cultivating active affects which are independent of individual leaders. Although the effectiveness of leaderless organizations and movements has already been subject to some discussion (Crevani et al., 2010; Graeber, 2013; Sutherland et al., 2014), the present chapter explains their power in terms of their ethical and affective constitution.

Caring Leader Identity Between Power and Powerlessness

“…Critical scholars are therefore often wary of the whole concept of caring leadership, except in the collective sense (e.g. Munro & Thanem, 2020). Tomkins (2020a) extends the critique to consider the perspective of persons in leading positions, which is highly relevant to this study.…”