1st Edition
Protest and the Ambiguous Politics of Indignation An Empirical and Conceptual Study of Mobilizing Emotions
What makes indignation ‘political’? And why should we care about it? Drawing on field-work among four movements in Belgium (2017–2021) – The Youth for Climate movement, the Citizen platform for refugee support, the Yellow Vests movement and the radical-right movement Schild & Vrienden – this book investigates both the meanings and implications of indignation in the context of mobilization. In particular, the book argues that what is often reduced to a form of ‘moral anger’ which triggers protest is in fact much more complex and ambiguous. Indignation is not just anger: it is rooted in hate and love. It may also harbour textures of compassion and disgust. It may be a culmination of resentful feelings or a reaction to fear. In some contentious contexts, it displays a distinctive righteous connotation; in others, it is rooted in historical forms of injustice and discrimination. It triggers some of the most disruptive forms of contention, while also reinforcing hegemonic norms and beliefs. Indignation, overall, is one of the most explicitly political affects of mobilization, while also reinforcing broader trends of depoliticization. By unveiling the affective complexity of indignation, the author shows the multiple ways in which the indignation expressed by social movements both politicizes and depoliticizes and what this means for the role played by emotions and affects in today’s landscape of conflictuality.
Introduction. 1. The politicality of indignation: edges and ambiguities 2. What indignation looks like and how to study its politicality 3. Indignation as transformation: power, escape and agency 4. Indignation on behalf of others: dignity, representation and democracy 5. Indignation in the Anthropocene: denial, anxiety and planetary bodies 6. Media-indignation: weaponization, righteousness and subalterneity 7. Indignation, betrayal and conflict Methods Appendix
Biography
Louise Knops is Assistant Professor in Environmental Humanities at the University of Brussels (Université libre de Bruxelles, ULB). She is also lecturer at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB).
“In this acutely observed and authoritative account of social movement activism in Belgium, Louise Knops provides a nuanced and detailed reading of the politics of indignation. Indignation, she argues, is a slippery emotion: capable both of enabling mobilisation and opening up possibilities of systemic challenge; and of foreclosing it, serving to dissolve critique within the immediacy of conflict. A distinctive, original and much needed advance in the political sociology of emotions, Knops’s analysis develops a wider resonance: understanding the emotional terrain on which dynamics of depoliticization operate can enable the repoliticization of the public sphere.” - Graeme Hayes, Aston University, UK, former Editor of Environmental Politics and Social Movement Studies
“This original work brings a real contribution to our understanding of affects and their political potential as well as, more specifically, the cycle of indignation which turns those affects, however diverse in shape and fierceness, into a vehicle of contest and struggle. Furthermore, it is thorough, well written and offers good insights into the Spinoza-inspired affect theories.” - Benedikte Zitouni, UCLouvain Saint-Louis Brussels, Belgium
