Collective Emotions

This book presents a comprehensive overview of contemporary theories and research on collective emotions. It spans several disciplines and brings together, for the first time, various strands of inquiry and up-to-date research in the study of collective emotions and related phenomena. In focusing on conceptual, theoretical, and methodological issues in collective emotion research, the volume narrows the gap between the wealth of studies on individual emotions and inquiries into collective emotions. The book catches up with a renewed interest into the collective dimensions of emotions and their close relatives, for example emotional climates, atmospheres, communities, and intergroup emotions.

This first monograph of its kind introduces the reader to fundamental definitions, key concepts and case studies addressing the following issues of rapidly growing relevance for online communities: What are emotions? How do they emerge, how are they transmitted? How can one measure emotional states? What are cyberemotions? When do emotions and cyberemotions become collective phenomena? How can one model emotions and their changes? What role do emotions play for on-line communities? Edited and authored by leading scientists in this field, this book is a comprehensive reference for anyone working on applications of complex systems methods in the social sciences, as well as for social scientists, psychologists, experts in on-line communities and computer scientists. This book provides an excellent overview of the current state-of-art in research on collective emotional interactions mediated by the Internet. It introduces a reader in social phenomena occurring in cyberspace, algorithms needed for automatic sentiment detection and data driven modeling of emotional patterns observed in on-line groups. Eugene Stanley, Professor, Boston UniversityWith the explosive hyper-exponential growth of the internet suddenly new ways of communication are emerging that give rise to a digital 'Homo empathicus', each of us suddenly being able to share thoughts and feelings with millions if not billions of others. This book is a true treat, a timely milestone that gives us insight in the co-evolution of the way we interact with each other and the communication technology provided through this new seemingly endless flexible digital world. Prof. Holyst did a great job bringing together real experts in the field of cyber emotions. Peter M.A. Sloot, Professor, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, Nanyang University, Singapore The book Cyberemotions embraces the topic of emotion studies in cyberspace from a very rich spectrum of points of view and applications. It is particularly interesting reading the theoretical foundations underlying the concepts of cyberemotions and how these concepts can be captured, modeled and implemented in real-time applications. Catherine Pelachaud, Director of Research CNRS at LTCI, TELECOM ParisTechLogical machines give us a chance to analyze our often illogical behaviors, especially in the vast meadows of the cyberspace. In this important book, authors of different backgrounds present a wide and deep image, not only of methods of analyzing our emotional behavior online but also how the computers can help to break communicational walls the same technology had built. Rafal Rzepka, Professor, Hokkaido University

With the rise of both populist parties and social movements in Europe, the role of emotions in politics has once again become key to political debates, and particularly in the Spanish case. Since 2011, the Spanish political landscape has been redrawn. What started as the Indignados movement has now transformed into the party Podemos, which claims to address important deficits in popular representation. By creating space for emotions, the movement and the party have made this a key feature of their political subjectivity. Emotions and affect, however, are often viewed as either purely instrumental to political goals or completely detached from ‘real’ politics. This book argues that the hierarchy between the rational and the emotional works to sediment exclusionary practices in politics, deeming some forms of political expressions more worthy than others. Using radical theories of democracy, Emmy Eklundh masterfully tackles this problem and constructs an analytical framework based on the concept of visceral ties, which sees emotions and affect as constitutive of any collective identity. She later demonstrates empirically, using both ethnographic method and social media analysis, how the movement Indignados is different from the political party Podemos with regards to emotions and affect, but that both are suffering from a broader devaluation of emotional expressions in political life. Bridging social and political theory, Emotions, Protest, Democracy: Collective Identities in Contemporary Spain provides one of the few in-depth accounts of the transition from the movement Indignados to party Podemos, and the role of emotions in contemporary Spanish and European politics.

A systematic examination of emotions and world politics, showing how emotions underpin political agency and collective action after trauma.

This book makes evident how love, as an interstitial practice, produces a set of collective practices and how, through a mapping of these practices, it is possible to observe the connection between the politics of sensibilities and social conflict. The book provides – in the face of a global normalization of immediate enjoyment through consumption, the internationalization of fear and anxiety, the rise of "post-truth" and a distrust regarding politics – a systematic analysis of love as an interstitial practice. This book follows a sociology of body/emotions approaches within which sensations, emotions and sensibilities are part of dialectical social structuration process. The book proposes love not only as an effect or trait of a society, but also as an analytical tool for better understanding the processes of social structuring. It connects a sociology of bodies/emotions with a specific perspective on collective action and links conflictual structures and the politics of sensibilities in six Latin American countries by using a strategy of inquiry attuned to current patterns of social transformation, that of digital ethnography. This work is of interest to a wide public, those who want to know which emotions are the prevailing in Latin America, as well as specialists such as sociologists, political scientists, anthropologists and all researchers and graduate students who are interested in the connections between conflict, society and emotions.

Collective and group-based pride is currently covered across a number of disciplines including nationalism studies, sociology and social psychology, with little communication between fields. This multidisciplinary collection encourages interdisciplinary research and provides a unique insight into the subject, stemming from a psychological perspective. The collection builds upon insights from collective emotion research to consider the relations between collective pride, shame and guilt as well as emotions of anger, empowerment and defiance. Collective pride is examined in contexts that vary from small groups in relatively peaceful competition to protest movements and large groups in divisive conflicts. In the book collective pride is a complex and positive emotional experience evident in the behaviour of groups, that can lead to negative forms of collective hubris in which other groups are devalued or dominated. Emotions of Collective Pride and Group Identity brings together international contributors to discuss the theory, research and practice surrounding collective pride in relation to other emotions and collective, cultural and national identity. Divided into two parts, part one explores the philosophy and theory behind collective pride and its extremes. Part two draws upon the latest quantitative and qualitative empirical research to focus on specific issues, for example, happiness, national pride and the 2010 World Cup. Topics covered include: - cultural and national pride and identity - positive feelings of unity and solidarity - dynamic relationships between collective pride, guilt and shame - theories of emotions in ritual, symbolic and affective practices - collective pride and collective hubris in organizations - perspectives on national events from young people. This book will appeal to an interdisciplinary audience in the area of affect studies and emotion research including social psychologists, sociologists, historians and anthropologists.

Challenging the idea that rituals are static and emotions irrational, the volume explores the manifold qualities of emotions in ritual practices. Focusing explicitly on the relationship between emotions and rituals, it poses two central questions. First, how and to what extent do emotions shape rituals? Second, in what way are emotions ritualized in and beyond rituals? Strong emotions are generally considered to be more spontaneous and uncontrolled, whereas ritual behaviour is regarded as planned, formalized and stereotyped, and hence less emotional. However, as the volume demonstrates, rituals often reveal strong emotions among participants, are motivated by feelings, or are intended to generate them. The essays discuss the motivation for rituals; the healing function of emotions; the creation of new emotions through new media; the aspect of mimesis in the generation of feelings; individual, collective, and non-human emotions; the importance of trance and possession; staged emotions and emotions on stage; emotions in the context of martyrdom; emotions in Indian and Western dance traditions; emotions of love, sorrow, fear, aggression, and devotion. Furthermore, aesthetic and sensory dimensions, as well as emic concepts, of emotions in rituals are underscored as relevant in understanding social practice.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 4th IFIP WG 5.5/SOCOLNET Doctoral Conference on Computing, Electrical and Industrial Systems, DoCEIS 2013, held in Costa de Caparica, Portugal, in April 2013. The 69 revised full papers were carefully reviewed and selected from numerous submissions. They cover a wide spectrum of topics ranging from collaborative enterprise networks to microelectronics. The papers are organized in the following topical sections: collaborative enterprise networks; service orientation; intelligent computational systems; computational systems; computational systems applications; perceptional systems; robotics and manufacturing; embedded systems and Petri nets; control and decision; integration of power electronics systems with ICT; energy generation; energy distribution; energy transformation; optimization techniques in energy; telecommunications; electronics: devices design; electronics: amplifiers; electronics: RF applications; and electronics: applications.