Abstract
This article utilizes feminist and postcolonial scholarship to shed light on the affective governmentality that takes place in the context of both liberal democracy and right-wing populism. In particular, it articulates a political grammar of feelings that makes visible in democratic education how affective modes of governing operate and what consequences they have. The pedagogical and political approach suggested here advocates nurturing a political sensitivity that identifies, critiques, and challenges modes of affective governmentality so that possibilities for solidarity emerge. This approach focuses on illuminating the twofold logic of the political grammar of feelings, namely, affects and emotions are not universal but are historically situated and that they are ambivalent rather than exclusively positive or negative forces. This twofold logic is a stark reminder that affects and emotions offer both political and pedagogical insights while broadening our understanding of the affective modalities of power.
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Zembylas, M. Affective governmentality, political sensitivity, and right-wing populism: Toward a political grammar of feelings in democratic education. Prospects 53, 325–339 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11125-021-09569-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11125-021-09569-3