Emotionally Contentious Social Movements: A Tri-Variate Framework

Abstract

After decades of seeing emotions as irrational and unimportant, scholars in social movements are beginning to value the role of emotions in social movements. This paper contributes to the burgeoning literature on emotions and contentious politics by proposing a synthesized tri-variate framework called the “emotional tripod.” The emotional tripod consists of three mutually constitutive “legs” that explain the origins of emotions (emotional habitus), the process of intensifying and transforming emotions (emotional effervescence) and the quality of the emotions generated (affective/reactive emotions). This paper empiricizes the framework by looking at the visual materials produced by PETA. Lastly, this paper briefly critiques the efficacy of emotions in generating collective action.