Emotions

This chapter demonstrates how emotions allow us to see, think and interpret political events ‘otherwise’ by exposing the political nature of emotions and their ability to resist and contest hegemonic stories about world politics. Acknowledging the significance of emotions in the social and political world, this chapter examines how emotions contribute important insights into the production of knowledge and dynamics of power at both the micro and macro level of global politics. First, we situate emotions research in the discipline of International Relations and illustrate how the inclusion of emotions in IR can transform our interpretation of global political events such as the European refugee ‘crisis’. Second, the chapter highlights key theoretical, empirical, and methodological debates in emotions research and shows how emotions are social, political and cultural. Lastly, drawing on the response to violence against Indigenous women in Canada in the #nomorestolensisters campaign, the chapter examines ways in which emotions research can challenge the Western-centric nature of world politics and raises the possibility for it to be central to decolonial scholarship and politics.