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Affective Publics: Understanding the dynamic formation of public articulations beyond the public sphere

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Abstract

Routledge Studies in Ajfective Societies presents high-level academic work on the social dimensions ofhuman affectivity. lt aims to shape, consolidate, and promote a new understanding of societies as Affective Societies, accounting for the fundamental importance of affect and emotion for human coexistence in the mobile and networked worlds of the 21st century. Contributions come from a wide range of academic fields, including anthropology; sociology; cultural, media, and film studies; political science; performance studies; art history; philosophy; and social, developmental, and cultural psychology. Contributing authors share the vision of a transdisciplinary understanding of the affective dynamics of human sociality. Thus, Routledge Studies in Ajfective Societies devotes considerable space to the development ofmethodology, research methods, and techniques that are capable ofunit-ing perspectives and practices from different fields.
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... As digital storytellers, they may take the opportunity to challenge the dominant regimes of truth and give voice to historically disempowered groups Foucault Welles, 2015, 2016;Papacharissi, 2016), or the society as a whole living under authoritarian regimes (Kermani and Tafreshi, 2022). Yet, networked publics may also facilitate 'dissonant communication' (Pfetsch, 2018) giving rise to hate speech, conspiracy thinking and misinformation, and therefore, it should not be merely regarded in terms of its democratising potential (Lünenborg, 2020). ...
... Networked publics also come to the fore in their collectively deciding what sorts of stories are worth spreading, and to what extent and to whom they are spread. In that regard, debates over the networked publics question the idea that the participatory cultures of new media set the scene for public debate based on rational deliberation; and therefore, the understanding of networked media in the Habermasian terms of a public sphere has limited explanatory potential (Jackson and Foucault Welles, 2015;Lünenborg, 2020). For a more adequate understanding of networked media, Papacharissi (2016Papacharissi ( , 2015a and Lünenborg (2020) suggest that networked publics are affective formations. 1 Publics come into existence through diverse media practices including the production and circulation of media texts, and these cannot be reduced to being only discursive constructions. ...
... In that regard, debates over the networked publics question the idea that the participatory cultures of new media set the scene for public debate based on rational deliberation; and therefore, the understanding of networked media in the Habermasian terms of a public sphere has limited explanatory potential (Jackson and Foucault Welles, 2015;Lünenborg, 2020). For a more adequate understanding of networked media, Papacharissi (2016Papacharissi ( , 2015a and Lünenborg (2020) suggest that networked publics are affective formations. 1 Publics come into existence through diverse media practices including the production and circulation of media texts, and these cannot be reduced to being only discursive constructions. They are instead built upon tidal flows characterised by rhythm, pace and tone (Papacharissi, 2016). ...
... As digital storytellers, they may take the opportunity to challenge the dominant regimes of truth and give voice to historically disempowered groups Foucault Welles, 2015, 2016;Papacharissi, 2016), or the society as a whole living under authoritarian regimes (Kermani and Tafreshi, 2022). Yet, networked publics may also facilitate 'dissonant communication' (Pfetsch, 2018) giving rise to hate speech, conspiracy thinking and misinformation, and therefore, it should not be merely regarded in terms of its democratising potential (Lünenborg, 2020). ...
... Networked publics also come to the fore in their collectively deciding what sorts of stories are worth spreading, and to what extent and to whom they are spread. In that regard, debates over the networked publics question the idea that the participatory cultures of new media set the scene for public debate based on rational deliberation; and therefore, the understanding of networked media in the Habermasian terms of a public sphere has limited explanatory potential (Jackson and Foucault Welles, 2015;Lünenborg, 2020). For a more adequate understanding of networked media, Papacharissi (2016Papacharissi ( , 2015a and Lünenborg (2020) suggest that networked publics are affective formations. 1 Publics come into existence through diverse media practices including the production and circulation of media texts, and these cannot be reduced to being only discursive constructions. ...
... In that regard, debates over the networked publics question the idea that the participatory cultures of new media set the scene for public debate based on rational deliberation; and therefore, the understanding of networked media in the Habermasian terms of a public sphere has limited explanatory potential (Jackson and Foucault Welles, 2015;Lünenborg, 2020). For a more adequate understanding of networked media, Papacharissi (2016Papacharissi ( , 2015a and Lünenborg (2020) suggest that networked publics are affective formations. 1 Publics come into existence through diverse media practices including the production and circulation of media texts, and these cannot be reduced to being only discursive constructions. They are instead built upon tidal flows characterised by rhythm, pace and tone (Papacharissi, 2016). ...
Article
This article calls for a rethinking of the formation of affective publics as a ritual process. Given the particularities of networked media, I suggest that media rituals extend into the formation of affective publics celebrating imagined collectivities in a fashion of collaborative storytelling. This is a transitional process in which a collectivity is validated, affirmed and reinforced through ritual actions. To illustrate this dynamic, I suggest drawing upon three key concepts (namely temporality, performativity and liminality), which are derivatives of media rituals theory, but also shed light on the dynamics of affective publics. To specify, first, ritual temporality refers to ambient concentrations that create a breach in the ordinary flow of media texts. Second, performativity implicates the affect-driven rhythms of digital storytelling feeding algorithmic curations that form an embodied harmony between participants and a sense of collectivity. Third, liminality entails ambiguous situations that enable the formation of affective publics by means of voluntary commitment, anonymity and the uniformity of participants. These concepts are the key entry points in capturing the ritual aspects of affective publics. Viewed through this lens, scrutiny for the ritual dynamics of networked publics helps us to grasp the affective formations of networked media.
... Weiterhin können u. a. auch affektive Dynamiken und ihre Folgen für das Sprechen und Widersprechen berücksichtigt werden (Lünenborg, 2020;Papacharissi, 2015). Es kann untersucht werden, welche Responsivität die Akteur:innen zulassen, welche Resonanzen erfolgen und auf welche Weise Anschlusskommunikation oder Widerrede mit welchem Effekt und mitunter als Paradoxie auftreten. ...
Article
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Rezente Transformationen von Öffentlichkeiten fordern die kommunikationswissenschaftliche Theoriebildung und Forschung heraus. Dieser Beitrag rückt Praktiken des Widersprechens in den Fokus, denn in vernetzten Öffentlichkeiten haben sich deren Modi weiterentwickelt und diversifiziert – und die Folgen sind mitunter paradox: Widersprechen erzeugt hochvolatile, von Polyvokalität und Ungleichheit geprägte Öffentlichkeiten. Diese sind u. a. durch das Spannungsverhältnis von Sprechen und Gehört-Werden, von Widersprechen und zum Schweigen-Gebracht-Werden gekennzeichnet. Zentrale Annahmen der hier vorgelegten Heuristik sind, dass Paradoxien des Widersprechens öffentlichkeits- und affekttheoretisch verstanden werden müssen. In den Blick zu nehmen sind dabei die öffentlichkeits- und sozialtheoretische Situierung, die je spezifischen Rahmenbedingungen, die bestimmte Modi des Widersprechens hervorbringen, sowie die Agency der sich artikulierenden Akteur:innen. Ziel ist es, eine Forschungsheuristik anzubieten, die es gleichermaßen erlaubt, Praktiken des Widersprechens zu erfassen, zu analysieren und zu deuten als auch wiederkehrende Muster und Strukturbedingungen des Widersprechens zu identifizieren.
... We argue here that dissonant public spheres do not only emerge unintentionally (e.g., through polyvocality, information abundance) but can result from strategic campaigning using negative, emotional, dramatic appeals rather than rational arguments, and through populist appeals that attack or exclude. This connects to the concept of affective publics (Lünenborg, 2019;Papacharissi, 2016), which criticizes the classic Habermasian model of public spheres based on deliberation and rational exchange as being blind to the emotional, passionate aspects of public discourse. Affective publics are "networked publics that are mobilized and connected, identified, and potentially disconnected through expressions of sentiment" (Papacharissi, 2016, p. 312). ...
Article
El artículo analiza la proliferación de los discursos antifeministas y de misoginia en la machoesfera. Dado que el antifeminismo tiene un amplio recorrido, la explicación a los fenómenos de extremismo y radicalización violenta que se denuncian en estos ecosistemas deben buscarse en la manera en la que estas narrativas interseccionan con la algoritmización de las comunidades digitales. Por tanto, se atenderá a esta doble dimensión, los discursos que articulan estas comunidades y las políticas de posicionamiento de las plataformas digitales que favorecen la polarización, la radicalización y expresiones de rabia y violencia contra las mujeres
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As public sphere(s) have been ascribed core functions for democratic societies, correlating theories have a long tradition in communications research. Yet they often fail to bridge the conceptual gap between the macro level of public sphere(s) and the micro level of individual citizens. In this article, we propose a conceptual approach that helps to describe and explain the contribution of individuals to the construction of publics. Following Elias' figurational approach, we propose a framework for the analysis of different kinds of publics as communicative figurations. To capture individuals' contribution to these publics, we introduce the concept of public connection repertoires which represent individuals' struc-tured patterns of connection to different publics. This results in the figurational analysis of publics, based on the public repertoires of all individuals who connect to that public. We discuss implications of this approach for theoretical work on public spheres in changing media environments.
Chapter
Der aktuelle affective turn steht für eine Intensivierung der Erforschung der gesellschaftspolitischen Bedeutung von scheinbar persönlichen Gefühlen und für Versuche, das komplexe Verhältnis von Öffentlichkeit und Privatheit besser zu verstehen. Die unterschiedlichen theoretischen Ausrichtungen und Schwerpunktsetzungen, die die Affektstudien kennzeichnen, reichen in der sozial- und kulturwissenschaftlichen Affektforschung von praxeologischen, ethnografischen, phänomenologischen und deleuzianischen Zugängen bis zu ökonomischen Perspektiven. Affektforschung hat für die kritische Geschlechterforschung und die Medienforschung großes Potenzial, indem sie die gesellschaftliche und politische Relevanz emotionaler Dynamiken sowohl für die Aufrechterhaltung bestehender Verhältnisse als auch für deren Transformationen deutlich machen kann.
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The Female Complaint is part of Lauren Berlant's groundbreaking "national sentimentality" project charting the emergence of the U.S. political sphere as an affective space of attachment and identification. In this book, Berlant chronicles the origins and conventions of the first mass-cultural "intimate public" in the United States, a "women's culture" distinguished by a view that women inevitably have something in common and are in need of a conversation that feels intimate and revelatory. As Berlant explains, "women's" books, films, and television shows enact a fantasy that a woman's life is not just her own, but an experience understood by other women, no matter how dissimilar they are. The commodified genres of intimacy, such as "chick lit," circulate among strangers, enabling insider self-help talk to flourish in an intimate public. Sentimentality and complaint are central to this commercial convention of critique; their relation to the political realm is ambivalent, as politics seems both to threaten sentimental values and to provide certain opportunities for their extension.
Chapter
"The idea of "the public sphere" in Habermas's sense designates a theater in modern societies in which political participation is enacted through the medium of talk. It is the space in which citizens deliberate about their common affairs." "Habermas stops short of developing a new, post-bourgeois model of the public sphere." "My argument enjoins four corresponding tasks on the critical theory of actually existing democracy. First, this theory should render visible the ways in which social inequality paints deliberation within publics in late-capitalist societies. Second, it shows how inequality affects relationships among publics in late-capitalist societies, how publics are differently empowered or segmented, and how some are involuntarily enclaved and subordinated to others. Next, a critical theory should expose ways in which the labeling of some issues and interests as " private" limits the range of problems, and of approaches to problems, that can be widely contested in contemporary societies. Finally, the theory should show how the overly weak character of some public spheres in late-capitalist societies denudes "public opinion" of practical force."