Affect Is Not a Thing, Except When It Is

• In Event: 51.080 - Sheraton Roundtable Session Nine - Osgoode Ballroom
  In Roundtable Session: 51.080-4 - (Post-)Qualitative Affects

Abstract

The purpose of this presentation is to engage in the ongoing debate around the role and utility of affect theory in qualitative and post-qualitative inquiry. We argue that affect is not a thing that can be measured or felt by any instrument, and instead suggest that when researchers write about or discuss affect in ways that imply it can be felt, sensed, or otherwise detected or measured, they undermine its potential to help us think, write, and do inquiry differently. By way of demonstration, we will deploy the philosophical concept of affect, as described by Spinoza, Deleuze, and Massumi, as a tool for thinking about a child’s participation in playful literacies.

Authors

• William Joseph Fassbender, University of Georgia

• Thomas Bradley Robinson, University of Georgia - Athens