The Politics of Affective Societies

Abstract

The series EmotionCultures is a collection of works centered around current questions raised in interdisciplinary and innovative research on emotions. At the core are empirical studies from Social and Cultural Anthropology that analyze processes of social and cultural modeling of emotions -always in close theoretical as well as methodological connection to various other disciplines. Key topics concern the generation of emotional codes in interaction with socio-cultural, historical, and political structures. Thus, this series ranges from the socialization of emotions in childhood to their transformation with increasing age. It incorporates reconfigurations of emotions against the backdrop of changing life conditions. Furthermore, a particular focus rests upon the emotional dynamics inherent to processes of migration, globalization, and transnationalization.The series is edited by Birgitt Röttger-Rössler and Anita von Poser.

Sensing Collectives

“…Moreover, feminist contributions to affective politics literature have also argued that the relation of certain affects to categories such as gender, race, and class-and thereby their (d)evaluation-tend to confine women to certain affective regimes of oppression that play rationality off against emotionality . It also disputes the idea that some societies are more affective than others, for example non-Western societies (Hynnä et al, 2019;Kahl et al, 2019).…”

“…While social movements theory has focused on the emancipatory potential of affect (Castells, 2015), feelings are a site of both discipline and resistance Di Gregorio & Merolli, 2016;. Affect theory has discussed the dichotomies that exist between the celebration and critique of affects and the opposition between rationality and affects (Kahl et al, 2019). Moreover, feminist contributions to affective politics literature have also argued that the relation of certain affects to categories such as gender, race, and class-and thereby their (d)evaluation-tend to confine women to certain affective regimes of oppression that play rationality off against emotionality .…”

“…The misogynistic comments stating that women have very little gray matter or even accusing them of having 'shit for brains' are ways of disqualifying women for showing rage during the protests. This can be explained by the division between rational and affective politics and traditionally relating 'the rational' with male models and 'the emotional' with women, as in 'they are too emotional' (Kahl et al, 2019;Liljeström, 2015). According to the literature on women in politics, these attacks toward protesters can be traced back to the women having challenged traditional gender stereotypes (M. L. Krook & Sanín, 2020).…”

“…The tweet implies that there cannot be progress when women have these affects. Likewise, the tweet alludes to the binarism of positive and negative affects (Kahl et al, 2019), whereby resentment, besides being negative, does not allow societies to progress. It highlights in particular the linear and rational idea of progress implied by the division between affections and rationality (Latour, 1993).…”

“…The tweet gives evidence of what Penz and Sauer (2020) point out: Affective regimes are part of society's cognitive schemas. In addition, the tweet also accounts for the binarism that prevails in separating negative and positive affects (Kahl et al, 2019), whereby victory would then only be achieved through positive affects. Finally, the meme also provides gendered ideas of how to protest, placing men above women (Savigny, 2020) and thus resisting gender transformations in the political arena (M. L. Krook & Sanín, 2020).…”