Emotions, Power and Resistance

This session examines emotions as a privileged entry point for understanding configurations of power and resistance in contemporary capitalisms. While studies have extensively documented their role in collective mobilizations, feminist and critical approaches have highlighted how emotions such as anger, indignation or humiliation emerge from experiences of subordination and discrimination and may become resources for critique and resistance. Yet emotions are often studied only once they have crystallized into visible forms of collective action.

Building on James Scott’s notion of infra-politics and everyday forms of resistance, this session shifts attention to the dynamic and often ambivalent processes through which emotions acquire political significance. Emotions may constitute early indicators of tensions within relations of power, expressing forms of dissent, refusal or withdrawal, while also sustaining the reproduction of social hierarchies. Following interactional approaches to power, we are interested in how asymmetrical relations shape emotional experiences and emotional energy (Collins, 2004), fostering processes of empowerment, compliance or resistance. Particular attention will be devoted to emotions emerging within contemporary labour regimes and capitalist transformations, including work intensification, emotional labour, platform work, care work, and experiences of invisibility or social disqualification.

Contributions may address questions such as: How do emotions reveal ordinary experiences of domination and inequality, particularly in workplaces? Which emotions foster resistance, solidarity or collective action, and which reinforce accommodation or disengagement? To what extent do emotional norms such as resilience, collegiality or professional pride foster adaptation rather than contestation? How can sociologists capture these emotional processes and their political implications?