What affective rupture does. Disrupting affective citizenship in migrant solidarity

ABSTRACT

The aim of this paper is to show how emotions and citizenship are inextricably intertwined in the analysis of migrant solidarity. It does so by highlighting the ‘disrupting’ dimensions of emotions as processes that redefine the very criteria by which one is included or excluded, close or distant, intimate or foreign, in every situation. The essay draws on ethnographic research with Italian citizens doing solidarity work for and with migrants in Florence and Turin. Solidarity practices and the emotions that constitute them are important for the production of lived citizenship, which happens on a daily basis. By discussing results that emerged through qualitative methods, the essay has the aim to investigate the role of affective ruptures in migrant solidarity networks, and how they may be emotional and reflexive turning points that transform the ethical-political attitudes.

KEYWORDS:

• Emotions
• disruption
• affective rupture
• activism
• affective citizenship
• migration

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethics statements

Names of participants were changed throughout this article for privacy reasons. The information and consent forms provided to participants have been drawn up in accordance with the EU regulation 2016/679 relating to the protection of physical persons.

Notes

1 The data discussed here is part of my PhD research.

2 Associazione per gli Studi Giuridici sull’Immigrazione (Association for Legal Studies on Immigration).

3 Medici per i Diritti Umani (Medical Doctors for Human Rights).

4 In this context, Hochschild's theory has some limitations. As is well known, Hochschild's theory explores emotional culture by describing it as a complex system of feeling rules and display rules that bind individuals to express prescribed emotions (1983). What we feel and what we manifest do not necessarily coincide, and in every society a series of techniques are used that allow oneself to align what one feels with what one should feel: this alignment is the ‘emotional work’. However, Hochschild's theory is limited in that it assumes the existence of already defined feeling rules, without exploring the process of institutionalisation and interpretation of these rules (Holmes, 2014, 2021). In cross-cultural contexts, feeling rules cannot be taken for granted outside of concrete situations. In today's societies, characterised by increasing plurality and ambiguous situations, the rules of feeling become less clear and more fluid; they need to be constantly interpreted and (re)instituted in the face of unprecedented situations. Affective ruptures multiply in the face of what is ambiguous and strange, and there is a greater need to reflect and act on the emotions that are felt and to respond affectively depending on what others feel. The approach outlined in these pages does not investigate how individuals adapt to already given and already clear and static feeling rules. Rather, it explores the relational process through which individuals determine which emotions to feel in the growing plurality and ambiguity of situations. The emotional reflexivity that emerges from affective ruptures implies greater flexibility, fluidity, and indeterminacy than ‘emotional work’, which, conversely, is based on clear social expectations to which we feel called to adapt. Mutual expectations are disrupted more frequently and affective ruptures become more frequent and varied. Affective ruptures (and the emotional reflexivity that follows) are an important source of social change, of reshaping affective habits and reorganising the coordinates (relational, ethical, political, aesthetic, perceptive, etc.) of daily life.

5 Giorgia and Claudio live in Turin in a neighbourhood designed originally for employees of FIAT, one of Italy's most prominent car manufacturers. During the 1960s, the area experienced migrations from southern Italy, which resulted in exclusionary racism towards migrant workers.