National Affects

Angharad Closs Stephens

"Identity is widely acknowledged to be a felt experience, yet questions of experience, mood and public sentiments are rarely made central to understanding the global politics of nationalism, citizenship and forms of being together in public. This book asks: what difference does it make to address national identity as an affective force? In a timely intervention, the book addresses the affective and atmospheric dimensions of being together to open new angles in the study of nationalism and global politics. Exploring sites that range from the 2012 London Olympic Games to the European refugee crisis and 'Brexit', asking how the nation is felt in everyday life and differently experienced, Atmospheric Politics moves between theory and narrative to establish a new tone of critical enquiry. Whist informed by critical interrogations of the geographies of "us" and "them", the book argues that...