The ambivalent ‘emotional legacies’ of the 2011 Egyptian and Syrian revolutions
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: The sociology of political emotions has undergone a revival over the last 20 years. Most authors have, however, focused on affects and emotions as they unfold in collective action. Less has been written about the ‘emotional legacies’ of activism, understood here following Nussio’s work as ‘the emotional residue that emerges from the remembered past, including regret, pride, resentment, nostalgia, and tiredness’. We aim to contribute to this understudied topic by focusing on two case studies – Egypt and Syria – where the politics of affect has been disregarded. More precisely, we seek to provide some responses to the following questions: How do participants in extraordinary events such as revolutions recall these moments and what affects and emotions do they mobilize when remembering them? And how do they experience the aftermath of these disruptive processes emotionally? Based on a comparative perspective and a micro-level approach, we study the ‘emotional legacies’ of revolutionary activism, which entailed a multitude of ambivalent emotions. We argue that this ambivalence has persisted across the years, and that conflicting narratives about the revolutionary experience are entangled with affective transformations of activists’ present. Our paper is based on biographical material collected in Lebanon, Turkey and gypt between 2011 and 2023.
Source: Mediterranean Politics
Authors: Chaymaa Hassabo, Laura Ruiz de Elvira
Language: English
Topic: History of Emotions Research
Subfield: History
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funder: European Commission
Award: G3984831954
OpenAlex ID: W4407260937