Emotions, we learn from recent social movement theory, bind social movements together.
In my research project Other People’s Struggles, I differentiate between constituents, whose participation is grounded in standing to benefit if the movement achieves its goal; and adherents, who participate despite not being motivated as beneficiaries.
So one important question to consider is whether constituents and adherents are bound together by emotion, or whether their emotional registers differ.
IMAGE CREDIT: JACOB CARTWRIGHT AND NICK JORDAN, THE EMOTIONS OF OTHERS (EXCERPTS FROM SHORT FILM, 2015), FOR THE KNOWLEDGE OF EMOTIONS PROJECT, UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER.