Defrosting the freezer and other acts of quiet resistance: Affective practice theory, everyday activism and affective dilemmas

ABSTRACT

This article illustrates the mode of thinking about affect that practice theory offers qualitative research in psychology. A focus on affective practice draws attention to the entanglement of embodied states with meaning making, to the role of routine and habit, and to the formation of new and creative affective-discursive patterns. Crucially, affective practice highlights human activity and negotiation, intertwining the subjective and the social organisation of affect. To exemplify these points, we draw on a research project on affect and national commemoration in Aotearoa New Zealand, specifically on research on participant engagements with Anzac Day. We elaborate three case studies investigating some of the alternative affective practices developed by those engaged in “quiet resistance” to hegemonic emotion. We discuss the core features of affective practice these case studies illuminate. Overall, the assumed national unity and normative national identity work of Anzac Day commemoration become fragmented, complicated, and troubled. We argue an affective practices approach is a particularly useful route into everyday negotiations of power that might otherwise be rendered mysterious.

KEYWORDS:

• Anzac Day
• Affective practice
• everyday activism
• feeling and emotion
• ideological dilemmas
• quiet resistance

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Notes on contributors

Margaret Wetherell

Margaret Wetherell, is a leading theorist and researcher in the field of the social construction of emotions, affect and feelings.

Alex McConville

Alex McConville, is a social psychologist whose recently completed doctoral studies focussed on affect, emotion and national identity.

Tim McCreanor

Tim McCreanor, is a social scientist with longstanding research interests in race relations, discourse and society.