The workshop will focus on the influence and importance of collective emotions for societal movements and social groups. It aims to explore how insights from the study of (collective) emotions – drawing on affective sciences, the philosophy of emotion, social ontology, or social psychology – can illuminate the role that collective emotions play, or fail to play, in the structuring of societal movements and social groups.
Societal movements and social groups often include or leverage collective emotions. Salient examples include calls for heightened emotional responses to ecological crises, such as fear and outrage in climate activism; the use of national pride or resentment in the mobilization of populist movements; or the potential manipulation of collective emotions in propaganda to steer public opinion. Other examples include the role of shared grief in solidarity after tragedies, collective euphoria in sports and its impact on fan communities, the fostering of hope and determination within grassroots campaigns for social justice, or collective guilt as a driver of reparative actions, like addressing historical injustices and advocating for restorative policies.
This workshop seeks to address questions such as:
Do collective emotions merely reflect shared evaluations and motivations, do they play a direct causal role in initiating societal changes, or does another kind of relation explain the strong links between collective emotions, societal movements, and social groups?
Do specific collective emotions (e.g. indignation, fear, pride) play a particularly influential role in societal movements and social groups?
How can research on emotions and collective intentionality help us understand the potential positive and negative roles of collective emotions in social and political contexts?
What ethical concerns emerge from the roles of collective emotions in societal movements and social groups?