Negative Affect and Political (De)Mobilization

• In Event: Disappointed Hopes: Reclaiming the Promise of Resistance

Abstract

This paper considers the relationship between negative political affects like hopelessness, despair, desperation, and overwhelmedness, on the one hand, and political activist (de)mobilization on the other. Although I point to cases that dispute the presumption that despair and its companion feelings invariably lead to demobilization and political paralysis, the bulk of the paper explores specific ways in which such negative affects sometimes do contribute to political demobilization and social movement decline. I specifically explore reasons why despair might emerge in an activist context, its challenge to the hope requisite in many social movement contexts, the less-than-fully-conscious processes that it might set in motion including disavowal and projection, and its potentially individuating and depoliticizing effects. I draw from the case of the street AIDS activist movement in the United States, ACT UP, to concretize my theoretical exploration. After analyzing the workings of despair, I conclude with some thoughts about the generative political potential of despair and its companion feelings.

Author

• Deborah B. Gould, UC Santa Cruz