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The Emotions of Protest
In Donald Trump’s America, protesting has roared back into fashion. The Women’s March, held the day after Trump’s inauguration, may have been the largest in American history, and resonated around the world. Between Trump’s tweets and the march’s popularity, it is clear that displays of anger dominate American politics once again.
There is an extensive body of research on protest, but the focus has mostly been on the calculating brain—a byproduct of structuralism and cognitive studies—and less on the feeling brain. James M. Jasper’s work changes that, as he pushes the boundaries of our present understanding of the social world. In The Emotions of Protest , Jasper lays out his argument, showing that it is impossible to separate cognition and emotion. At a minimum, he says, we cannot understand the Tea Party or Occupy Wall Street or pro- and anti-Trump rallies without first studying the fears and anger, moral outrage, and patterns of hate and love that their members feel.
This is a book centered on protest, but Jasper also points toward broader paths of inquiry that have the power to transform the way social scientists picture social life and action. Through emotions, he says, we are embedded in a variety of environmental, bodily, social, moral, and temporal contexts, as we feel our way both consciously and unconsciously toward some things and away from others. Politics and collective action have always been a kind of laboratory for working out models of human action more generally, and emotions are no exception. Both hearts and minds rely on the same feelings racing through our central nervous systems. Protestors have emotions, like everyone else, but theirs are thinking hearts, not bleeding hearts. Brains can feel, and hearts can think.
There is an extensive body of research on protest, but the focus has mostly been on the calculating brain—a byproduct of structuralism and cognitive studies—and less on the feeling brain. James M. Jasper’s work changes that, as he pushes the boundaries of our present understanding of the social world. In The Emotions of Protest , Jasper lays out his argument, showing that it is impossible to separate cognition and emotion. At a minimum, he says, we cannot understand the Tea Party or Occupy Wall Street or pro- and anti-Trump rallies without first studying the fears and anger, moral outrage, and patterns of hate and love that their members feel.
This is a book centered on protest, but Jasper also points toward broader paths of inquiry that have the power to transform the way social scientists picture social life and action. Through emotions, he says, we are embedded in a variety of environmental, bodily, social, moral, and temporal contexts, as we feel our way both consciously and unconsciously toward some things and away from others. Politics and collective action have always been a kind of laboratory for working out models of human action more generally, and emotions are no exception. Both hearts and minds rely on the same feelings racing through our central nervous systems. Protestors have emotions, like everyone else, but theirs are thinking hearts, not bleeding hearts. Brains can feel, and hearts can think.
304 pages, Hardcover
Published May 24, 2018
7 people are currently reading
68 people want to read
About the author
James M. Jasper
30 books7 followersJames M. Jasper divides his time between the Graduate Center at the City University of New York, the University of Texas at Austin, and the Scuola Normale Superiore in Florence. He writes about culture and politics, and his most recent books are The Emotions of Protest and Protestors and their Targets.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 11, 2021
3.5
Didn't finish the whole book, but I think I have read enough.
Some parts are really inspiring and informative, while some chapters are not as good in my opinion. Hence the 3.5.
The argument the author was trying to make, was that emotions matter. Try putting everything human behaviour into a logical framework, and you find things that cannot be explained. That is because human behaviour is not entirely logical, and we are capable of emotions. Emotions not only drive our actions, but provide reasoning behind our motives.
Especially in social movements and protests, where emotions are heightened even more. The author broke down how emotions influence our decision-making and actions by categorizing emotions into five categories:
1. Reflex emotions
2. Urges
3. Moods
4. Affective Commitments
5. Moral Emotions
It helped to understand the very complex and layered emotional experience.
Didn't finish the whole book, but I think I have read enough.
Some parts are really inspiring and informative, while some chapters are not as good in my opinion. Hence the 3.5.
The argument the author was trying to make, was that emotions matter. Try putting everything human behaviour into a logical framework, and you find things that cannot be explained. That is because human behaviour is not entirely logical, and we are capable of emotions. Emotions not only drive our actions, but provide reasoning behind our motives.
Especially in social movements and protests, where emotions are heightened even more. The author broke down how emotions influence our decision-making and actions by categorizing emotions into five categories:
1. Reflex emotions
2. Urges
3. Moods
4. Affective Commitments
5. Moral Emotions
It helped to understand the very complex and layered emotional experience.
December 7, 2020
Most accessible of Jaspers work in my opinion. He mainly differentiates between five broad categories of "Emotion" that are universally existant in human interactions and demonstrates past theories to explain these fields, while always keeping the focus on the specific relationship between protest and emotions. Thoroughly recommend if you are interested in the sociology of emotions or the emotions of protest in general.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews