Political action and resentful affectivity in critical times

Tereza Capelos, Nicolas Demertzis

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

How does the study of emotions help us understand engaging in or abstaining from violent and illegal political behaviors in the context of the Eurozone economic crisis? This question sits at the core of our article. We focus particularly on anger, fear, and hope hypothesizing that combined with perceptions of self-efficacy, these emotions fuse in complex affective blends of resentful or ressentiment-ful affectivity, which in turn determine the path of citizens’ political engagement. We test this using data from a three-wave cross-sectional survey from Greece, which contains measures of emotions and unique items of engagement with illegal and violent political actions. We show that such behaviors rest on complex clusters of resentful affectivity pointing to particular actions and reactions. Our theoretical and empirical framework can be useful for understanding political developments outside Greece manifested as grievances, anti-immigration demands, anti-establishment sentiment, anti-expert skepticism, and support for populist parties, extending previous theoretical and empirical work, which currently employ discrete measures of emotions.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)410-433
Number of pages24
JournalHumanity & Society
Volume42
Issue number4
Early online date2 Oct 2018
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Nov 2018

Keywords

  • resetnment
  • affect
  • reactionism
  • Emotions
  • anger
  • fear

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