The Politics of Affective Societies

by Jonas Bens

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About

Many claim that political deliberation has become exceedingly affective, and hence, destabilizing. The authors of this book revisit that assumption. While recognizing that significant changes are occurring, these authors also point out the limitations of turning to contemporary democratic theory to understand and unpack these shifts. They propose, instead, to reframe this debate by deploying the analytic framework of affective societies, which highlights how affect and emotion are present in all aspects of the social. What changes over time and place are the modes and calibrations of affective and emotional registers. With this line of thinking, the authors are able to gesture towards a new outline of the political.

Discussion questions for The Politics of Affective Societies

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1
How does the book’s premise—that affect and emotion are present in all aspects of the social—challenge the traditional view that political deliberation should be purely rational?
2
In your own observation of current political discourse, can you identify a recent moment where emotional registers shifted the entire conversation, and how did you personally react to it?
3
The authors suggest that we should look at the "modes and calibrations" of emotion rather than assuming politics has only recently become emotional. How does this historical and anthropological perspective change the way we view modern political polarization?

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