New Directions in the Study of Emotions and Violence

Session Submission Type: Full Paper Panel

Session Description

The study of emotion has become increasingly important to research on political violence over the past two decades. This “emotional turn” in the study of political violence has reshaped how we think of everything from initial popular mobilization, to the choices of individuals to participate in insurrection, to the oft intimate nature of target selection amidst civil war, through the interaction of ideology and emotion amidst violence. Emotion also increasingly factors into our understandings of pathways out of violence, including the ability of outside interveners to broker ceasefires and the likelihood stable democracies could arise to undergird a long-term democratic peace. Yet even as the study of emotions and violence has flourished, crucial questions remain about what the sources of emotions are, how they spur action, and whether we should expect similar relationships between emotion and violence across cultures or history. Given the persistence of such outstanding questions amidst the growing importance of emotion to the study of political violence, this is an opportune moment to take stock of this increasingly influential research agenda and chart a path forward.

The goal of this panel is to do just that by presenting the diverse ways in which scholars are studying emotions and violence in order to develop a cross-regional and cross-methodological conversation about how to advance this increasingly robust research agenda. For instance, Jonathan Blake at Rand draws from interviews on Protestant-Catholic violence in Northern Ireland to examine the relationship between emotion and the start of ethnic riots. Jeffrey Javed at the University of Michigan builds on historical research to chart how the Chinese Communist Party used emotion to mobilize peasants during the Chinese revolution. Nicholas Rush Smith will present research from an ongoing ethnographic project on death and democracy in post-apartheid South Africa to show why citizens might sometimes accept large-scale state violence against their fellow citizens. Lauren Young at UC-Davis will present work from experimental and interview research on fear and demobilization in Zimbabwe to show why and when citizens are likely to challenge state repression and rise above it. In presenting these diverse approaches to the study of emotion and violence, the papers on this panel will develop a conversation on how best to shape the path forward for this increasingly important research agenda.

Sub Unit

• DIVISION 11: Comparative Politics

Individual Presentations

• The Moral Emotions of Contentious Parades in Northern Ireland - Jonathan Blake, RAND Corporation

• Moral Mobilization: Outrage, Sympathy, and Violence in Early Maoist China - Jeffrey Arshad Javed, University of Michigan

• Democratic Death: South Africa’s Killing State - Nicholas Rush Smith, CUNY-City College

• Who Dissents? Self Efficacy and Opposition Action After Election Violence - Lauren E Young, University of California, Davis

Chair

• Beatriz Magaloni Stanford University

Discussant

• Anastasia Shesterinina The University of Sheffield