Emotion at the Center of Radical Politics: On the Affective Structures of Rebellion and Control

Abstract: Through an examination of anarchist organizing and policing and security tactics at the 2008 Republican National Convention, this paper argues that the emotional connections between radical activists have become the targets of both social movement strategies for growth and police strategies for social control. As such, the emotions of activists are a site of intense political contestation. I introduce the concept of affective structures to develop an account of the relations between affect, emotion, and radical politics, and present these structures as both the means and the ends of contemporary anarchist organizing and state strategies for social control.