Description:
Using radical theories of democracy, Eklundh constructs an analytical framework based on concept of visceral ties, seeing emotions and affect as constitutive of any collective identity. She later demonstrates empirically, using both ethnographic method and social media analysis, how the movement Indignados has stronger visceral ties than Podemos.
Review Quotes:
"This is a significant new monograph, arguably the first of its kind, focusing on issues that are not only extremely topical like populism, but are also researched from innovative perspectives combining the discursive and the affective in a truly original way. This is a work of high academic standard, advancing innovative perspectives, and it promises to shape decisively on-going debates. Not to be missed!" --Yannis Stavrakakis, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
"This necessary book develops a creative and original framework to conceptualize affects and emotions as essential elements to understand politics and democracy. Emmy Eklundh convincingly overcomes dichotomies such as rational and emotional, vertical and horizontal, as well as language and practices. Based on the cases of the indignados movement and Podemos, the book proves, empirically and theoretically, that emotions, far from being a risk belonging to the irrational masses, are the core of politics and the articulation of political subjects. Although grounded in the Spanish context, this book is highly recommendable to all those interested in democracy theory, social movements, new political parties, collective identities, political communication and discourse theory." -- Óscar García Agustín, Aalborg University, Denmark
"Emotions, Protest, Democracy: Collective Identities in Contemporary Spain is a significant and absolutely necessary contribution in the field of collective action, contemporary movements and democratic theory. Rather than searching for 'rationalist' explanations, focusing either on the economic factors and/or the malfunctions of a democratic framework underpinned by the idea of rational consensus, the book moves further, exploring the role of affect in the constitution of political subjectivity. Contra contemporary academic and journalistic accounts afraid of engaging seriously with the role of emotions/affect in political life, this holistic ethnographic work on the Spanish Indignados, examines the processes of creating unity through disunity, disagreement and affect. The final chapter is itself a significant contribution in political theory." --Marina Prentoulis, University of East Anglia
"[The book] operates in the tension between understanding and accepting emotional political subjects, the book offers many valuable ideas to those who wish to engage in the struggle for recognition on their behalf. At the same time, these ideas - especially the conception of visceral ties - significantly further our understanding of how the emotional political subjects are formed." --Andrei Bespalov, Contemporary Political Theory