Emotion, Affect and Political Transformations in the Middle East
Panel 124, 2016 Annual Meeting
On Saturday, November 19 at 8:00 am
Panel Description
Emotions and affect have long been neglected in the social sciences, yet in recent years, anthropologists, sociologists and political scientists have gone increasingly beyond positivist and rationalist paradigms of agency. Still, with a few notable exceptions so far there is not much systematic and empirically grounded research available on the emotional and affective dimensions of the transformative processes, which took place in the Arab World, Turkey and Israel since 2011. Accordingly, this panel explores the role of emotions and affect in the context of mass mobilization and political transformation in Egypt and Turkey. It brings together scholars who build on critical qualitative approaches in Area Studies and bring three strands of literature into a productive conversation, namely: affect research, emotion research, and political science informed work about participation, political subjectivities and social movements. Drawing on the mass protests on Tahrir and Taksim squares, the papers of this panel engage with conceptual issues while presenting original qualitative empirical data from both countries.
Many observers alluded to the importance of emotional and affective dynamics during the mass protests of “Tahrir” (2011) and “Taksim” (2013), which was also reflected in concomitant rhetoric such as “Wall of Fear”, “Day of Rage”, or “Spirit of Gezi”. Euphoria, anger, fear or joy are among the frequently mentioned emotions that accompanied new political practices in the squares. But how can these emotions and affects be conceptualized? One central argument developed throughout the contributions is that the mass protests unleash highly productive affective and emotional dynamics, which e.g. helped to (momentarily) bridge existing cleavages in both societies. The other central argument of all papers is, that these extraordinary moments of affective resonance also fed into new forms of political participation on the squares and beyond such as the Gezi-Forums in Turkey or the popular committees in Egypt. The panel looks at these new political practices while employing an intersectional perspective, which takes the gendered and racialized dimensions of emotional repertoires into consideration. Another focus is to explore the sustainability and transformative potential of emotional and affective bonds for collective action and political change. Did e.g. the Gezi protests offer a space for new affective bonds and transform the Turkish-Kurdish relationship? Finally, all papers critically engage with the conceptual tensions between emotions and affect literature and a narrowly defined social science research agenda in Middle Eastern studies.
Many observers alluded to the importance of emotional and affective dynamics during the mass protests of “Tahrir” (2011) and “Taksim” (2013). Often, protester’s rhetoric directly evoked certain emotions such as tearing down the “Wall of Fear”, calling for a “Day of Rage”, or living the “Spirit of Gezi”. Anger, fear or joy are among the frequently mentioned emotions, which shaped these extraordinary moments. Still, with a few notable exceptions (e.g. Pearlman 2013, Schielke 2014, Gambetti 2014), there is not much systematic research available on the affective and emotional dynamics of the transformative experiences of the squares and beyond. The paper addresses this gap and develops a conceptual proposition of how to understand the emotional and affective dynamics of such extraordinary events. While critically engaging with social movement approaches towards emotions, I also look at the affective dimensions of politics and try to link these.
Based on this conceptual literature, my own fieldwork in Cairo and first-hand accounts from both Egypt and Turkey, I start from the assumption that intense experiences of affective resonance (and dissonance) dubbed as “Gezi or Tahrir spirit” were at the heart of these protest events. I propose to understand them as „midan-moments“ or plaza-moments (Platzmomente, ‘square moments’). The paper then engages with this new heuristic device and sketches the affective and emotional dynamics of these moments. “Midan-moments”, the paper holds, encapsulate highly productive affective and emotional dynamics in that they help to overcome – at least momentarily – old and new social, economic, religious or ethnic cleavages. “Midan-moments” are moments of “emotional liberation” (Flam 2005) and they enabled participants to experience “affective solidarity” (Hemmings 2012). This turned e.g. “Tahrir” and “Taksim” at times into real-time political laboratories of emerging new political subjectivities, which are re-negotiated along the lines of existing gender-, class or ethno-religious orders. Thus, “midan-moments” also stimulated new political practices, which lived on well beyond the central squares and the peaks of mass mobilization such as the Gezi-Forums in Turkey or the popular committees in Egypt. Still, while these moments travel in time and space, I conclude, affective solidarity might turn into hateful polarization and the experience of emotional liberation is confronted with new waves of repression and violence.
For the past decades, the Kurdish mass mobilization was arguably the most radical challenge to the Turkish nation state and society, shaking the very fundaments of Turkish Republic. In March 2013, the warring parties agreed to a peace process that unleashed a wave of hope from Diyarbakir to Istanbul, promising a new page in Kurdish-Turkish relations. With the outbreak of Gezi protests in May/June 2013 however, for the first time a range of actors from a wide spectrum of Turkey`s society staged in Istanbul a protest that quickly spread through the country. While myriad groups had gathered on the square, the only visibly absent group was the Kurdish movement. The rather unexcited reaction of the Kurdish movement to the protests in Istanbul led to feelings of disappointement and estragement among the Gezi protestors. „Where are the Kurds?“ was one of the key questions that was repeatedly asked in public discussions and progressive media. On many accounts, this question invites to reflect on the affective economies (Ahmad 2004) of Kurdish-Turkish political relations before and after the Gezi protests. So far, this relationship has been analysed from a historical, political, economic or legal perspective, but not from the lens of affect and emotions. This is quite curious, given that much of the political debates of the contentious Kurdish-Turkish relations are marked by grievances, passions, and emotions. As a starting point for inquiry into this relationship, the affective dynamics of Gezi protests which have been highlighted in most accounts will be analyzed. The uniqueness of the moment, the affective bond of the square, the kinetic energy of the bodily experience of protesting together (Gambetti 2013) led to the conclusion that new political subjectivites emerged, paving the way for new collectivities. What is the space for Kurds within this new collective? To what degree can this new experience of protesting and experiencing state violence create new affective bonds and transform Turkish-Kurdish relations? Based on an analysis of firsthand accounts, media reports, documentaries, public debates and other narratives, this paper will explore the themes of estrangement and affective solidarity (Hemmings 2012) for the Gezi protesters and discuss its reverberations for the Kurdish-Turkish relationship.
The 25 January revolution in Egypt has been intensively covered academically. With a few notable exceptions (Pearlman 2013, Schielke 2014, Sholkamy 2012), the role of emotions and affect in mass mobilization has not gotten the attention it deserves. Even though most activists’ accounts emphasize the centrality of emotions in revolutionary processes, so far there is no systematic empirical analysis of the affective and emotional dynamics of the events on Tahrir square and beyond.
I attempt to addresses this gap and explore the role of affect and emotions in the Egyptian revolution and its aftermath while constantly employing a gendered lens to examine the creation of new political subjectivities and gender dynamics.
My central argument is that the analysis of affect and emotions matters as they are so intimately tied to the emergence of new gendered political subjectivities in the framework of the Egyptian revolution. But how and where to look for the emotions of an exceptional political and affective experience? I propose to look at creative and genuine expressions of the voices of the people from the Midan, which were narrated in the “Tahrir Monologues”. This is a storytelling project that came out of the revolution that invited people from various segments as well as geographical locations across Egypt to share their own stories about the revolution. Without any structured interview questions, this project presented a blank canvas for its participants write their own version of history. Political gendered subjectivities can be traced through the genealogy of the project as well as its unfolding stories. Empirically, I aim to analyze the video recordings of those stories in an attempt to identify and navigate the intricate web of gendered emotions described by those who narrate them. I conclude by linking this mapping of the emotion order of political transformation of the square to conceptual debates about “affective solidarity” and “emotional liberation” (Hemmings 2012, Flam).
