Collections: Passionate Politics

  • Allahyari, R. A. (2001). The felt politics of charity: serving “the ambassadors of God” and saving “the sinking classes”. PP: 195-211. Importance of experiencing, feeling the politics of caring for the poor as embodied participants in org. cultures. Salvation Army demanded disciplined commitment to rehabilitation & acceptance of state policy. Loaves & Fishes radical Christianity encouraged political activism. Emotions, morality, cognitions wrapped up in self-work. Interplay of emotion and morality in the felt politics of conflicts over serving the poor.
  • Barker, C. (2001). Fear, laughter, and collective power: the making of solidarity at the Lenin shipyard in Gdnask, Poland, August 1980. PP: 175-194. Vague anger turned into a major strike/ Participants remember sudden shifts in emotions, from fear to pride then derision at officials, solemn silence to fierce shouting, doubt to pleasure, panic to confidence. Emotions are not things but qualities of action or thought; emotions and cognitions are intertwined, emotions are part of the meaning of action or thought or speech, part of dialogical context, intensity of emotion is important, there are rapid qualitative breaks in emotion. Narrative of the strike showing examples.
  • Berezin, M. (2001). Emotions and political identity: mobilizing affection for the polity. PP: 83-98. Italian fascists employed public rituals to induce strong feeling of national belonging, emotional underside to political identities. Political identities are not natural, have to be constructed. Liberalism represses political emotion. Details of emotional tropes in fascism.
  • Calhoun, C. (2001). Putting emotions in their place. PP: 45-57. Was obviously originally concluding remarks commenting on themes at the conference. Essay on how people think about emotions, suggesting need to differentiate emotions. Avoid dualism. Among social movements, need to distinguish normal everyday movements from those that arouse emotions. Movements produce emotions, not just reflect them.
  • Collins, R. (2001). Social movements and the focus of emotional attention. PP: 27-45. An essay on the collective dynamics of emotional energy, the formation of unity and its dissolution.
  • Dobbin, F. (2001). The business of social movements. PP: 74-80. Both movement activists & scholars of movements increasing see the “passions” motivating behavior turned into “interests” and thus turn passionate behavior into calculative behavior. Tied to rationalization and demystification of social life. Economics model of organizing. People make sense of their own behavior through the interest frame. Mistake to believe what people say about their own motives.
  • Goodwin, J., J. M. Jasper, et al. (2001). Introduction: Why Emotions Matter. Passionate Politics: Emotions and Social Movements. J. Goodwin, J. M. Jasper and F. Polletta. Chicago, The University of Chicago Press: 1-24. Mostly overview, some brief discussion of types of emotions, social construciton of emtion. Emotions matter in each state of a movement.
  • *Goodwin, J. and S. Pfaff (2001). Emotion work in high-risk social movements: managing fear in the U.S. and East German civil rights movements. Passionate Politics: Emotions and Social Movements. J. Goodwin, J. M. Jasper and F. Polletta. Chicago, The University of Chicago Press: 282-300. High risk activists need to deal with fears of reprisals against self or family. Networks, gatherings, rituals, identities, shaming, guns all helped people deal with fear. Emotion management and encouragement.
  • Gould, D. (2001). Rock the boat, don’t rock the boat, baby: ambivalence and the emergence of militant AIDS activism. Passionate Politics: Emotions and Social Movements. J. Goodwin, J. M. Jasper and F. Polletta. Chicago, The University of Chicago Press: 135-157. Mixture of pride and shame, so responded to AIDS with volunteerism, quiet nobility. But after court decisions, shifted to indignation: pride = militant confrontation. Traces the shift from politeness to anger. [parallels to 1960s black movement, fits with oppositional consciousness arguments]
  • Groves, J. M. (2001). Animal rights and the politics of emotion: folk constructions of emotion in the animal rights movement. Passionate Politics: Emotions and Social Movements. J. Goodwin, J. M. Jasper and F. Polletta. Chicago, The University of Chicago Press: 212-230. Men’s expression of emotion in animal rights movement were considered legitimate, but women who expressed emotion were considered unprofessional, irrational, feminine. Career-oriented women felt they had to substantiate their feelings with scientific arguments and support of men. Based on interviews with activists, showing how they viewed emotions.
  • *Kane, A. (2001). Finding emotion in social movement processes: Irish land movement metaphors and narratives. Passionate Politics: Emotions and Social Movements. J. Goodwin, J. M. Jasper and F. Polletta. Chicago, The University of Chicago Press: 251-266. Emotional aspects of movement meanings, solidarity, alliances. Analyze narratives in Irish land movement, finds many emotion metaphors. Metaphors of humiliation and shame, confrontation, resistance. [Fits in with oppositional consciousness ideas.]
  • *Kemper, T. (2001). A structural approach to social movement emotions. Passionate Politics: Emotions and Social Movements. J. Goodwin, J. M. Jasper and F. Polletta. Chicago, The University of Chicago Press: 58-73. Goal of chapter is to provide movement scholars a brief grounding in the structural approach to emotions–explain why emotions are prevalent or likely to arise as structural conditions change or remain the same. Emotions arise from social relationship outcomes. Power and status are organizing relations for emotions. Detailed predictions. Emotions tied to relative power & status. This seems very useful.
  • Nepstad, S. E. and C. Smith (2001). The social structure of moral outrage in recruitment to the U.S. Central America peace movement. Passionate Politics: Emotions and Social Movements. J. Goodwin, J. M. Jasper and F. Polletta. Chicago, The University of Chicago Press: 158-174. Social structure of moral shocks. Church members had ties to Central Americans, felt they knew them, thus reacted with activism to US covert insurgency. Argument is that theology + network ties to Central Americans put church members in touch with information about atrocities which led to moral outrage; moral outrage motivated participation.
  • Polletta, F. and E. Amenta (2001). Conclusion: second that emotion? Lessons from once-novel concepts in social movement research. Passionate Politics: Emotions and Social Movements. J. Goodwin, J. M. Jasper and F. Polletta. Chicago, The University of Chicago Press: 303-316. Fill in political process: not just opportunities, but indignation. In doing research on emotions, need conceptual clarity & comparison. Provoke new questions.
  • Stein, A. (2001). Revenge of the shamed: the Christian Right’s emotional culture war. Passionate Politics: Emotions and Social Movements. J. Goodwin, J. M. Jasper and F. Polletta. Chicago, The University of Chicago Press: 115-132. Christian conservative activists reported selfless commitment to higher authorities, but also feelings of rejection, passivity, powerlessness. Try to construct views of selves as strong and independent, in contrast to weak, shameful others (gays & lesbians). See selves as victims of external forces, but believe in individualist ethos. Individualism helps them deny shame but also exacerbates it. Lead them to resent the world. [My skimming makes this seem like the kind of psychologizing that led to the RM revolution.]]
  • *Whittier, N. (2001). Emotional strategies: the collective reconstruction and display of oppositional emotions in the movement against child sexual abuse. Passionate Politics: Emotions and Social Movements. J. Goodwin, J. M. Jasper and F. Polletta. Chicago, The University of Chicago Press: 233-250. Activist survivors encourage different emotions in different locales. Among their own, express anger, grief, shame but also pride. When pressing claims, must exhibit grief, fear, shame but not anger or pride. In response to countermovement characterizing them as hysterical, they make efforts to present themselves as cool, rational, objective. Good article.
  • *Wood, E. J. (2001). The emotional benefits of insurgency in El Salvador. Passionate Politics: Emotions and Social Movements. J. Goodwin, J. M. Jasper and F. Polletta. Chicago, The University of Chicago Press: 267-281. Salvadoran peasants took pleasure and pride in their rebellion, regardless of calculation of success. Collective action for its own sake: to assert agency was to reclaim dignity. Protest itself was the goal. Only later, when repression was lighter, was their pride in achieving interests. [links to oppositional consciousness]
  • Young, M. P. (2001). A revolution of the soul: transformative experiences and immediate abolition. Passionate Politics: Emotions and Social Movements. J. Goodwin, J. M. Jasper and F. Polletta. Chicago, The University of Chicago Press: 99-114. Slavery came to be seen as sinful, abolishing it linked to personal redemption. Different emotion cultures create new motivations for and targest of protest. Affective and reactive emotions interact in moral shocks. 1830, sea change in opposition to slavery. Religious revivals of 1820s and 1830s had effect. Western evangelicals central to spread of abolitionism. Different models of piety, shift to “break the chains of sin.” [Emotions play a role, but the argument appears to be cognitive.]