Emotion, Politics and Society

Emotion, Politics and Society critically addresses the intersection between power, politics and the emotions. This is a very timely project given the centrality of mass emotions such as fear and humiliation on the world stage today. Challenging traditional dichotomies which counter-pose rationalist to non-rationalist epistemologies, it offers a sustained argument for a more complete and integrated rationalism and helps us understand emotions in contemporary social and political life, for example, in racism, populism, mass grief, political protest and processes of paranoia and terror.

For over two decades work on identity and emotion has been increasingly incorporated into sociological thinking in Britain and the USA, however within politics this process is still in its early stages. This book addresses this lacuna by providing a framework for understanding the emotional dimensions of politics. Throughout this volume arguments are brought to life using contemporary empirical examples.