Politics, Emotion and Protest

Bournemouth University

A MeCCSA Social Movement Network event, co-hosted by Bournemouth University’s Media & Politics Research Group and Civic Media Hub, the Department of Media & Communication at University of Leicester, the Politics and Media Group of the Political Studies Association, and the Protest Camps Research Network

Keynote Speakers:
Professor Barry Richards, Bournemouth University
Professor Karin Wahl-Jorgensen, Cardiff University

From Hong Kong to Kiev, from Missouri to Madrid, we are living in a time of global protests. Images of smoke filled streets and cities up in flames dart around the world, populating news reports and twitter feeds. Fear, hope, camaraderie, terror, relief, trauma. These protest movements teem with emotion. Their effects are contagious, their indignation infectious. They bring with them new cooperative political formations, as well as new manifestations of fascism and repression. As researchers wanting to contextually understand these events, many of us find ourselves inflamed and overwhelmed by proliferating political commentary, trying to sort through the sensory overload.

What tools, approaches and methods do we need to understand these protest movements? How can we make sense of them in relation to broader struggles for social change? Can we engage in research on uprisings and protests without falling into blind celebration or armchair critique? What lies between the big data predictions of future protest events and the past histories of unrest that remain unwritten or misunderstood?

Critical interventions in Social Movement Studies around emotion (Jaspers 1998, Flam and King 2005), along with the ‘affective turn’ of the early 2000s (Breenan 2004, Ahmed 2004) have offered a rich conceptual vocabulary for thinking and talking about the intersections of politics and emotion. Building on these fields of inquiry, this workshop brings researchers together to address the challenges and possibilities facing academic engagement with the politics and emotions of protest movements.

We seek participants working through these challenges who are interested in engaging in collaborative, interdisciplinary dialogues.

This workshop will include insights from keynote speakers and case study presentations, with dedicated time for collaboration building, a PSA mini-beer festival, and a MeCCSA Social Movement Network Seaside Social to end off the event.

Registration fees: £25 PG/under-waged; £45 standard (fee includes 2x lunch, 1x dinner)

Please send any questions to: afeigenbaum@bournemouth.ac.uk; pr93@le.ac.uk

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