Beyond Words: How Practices Shape Political Emotions
What is it about?
In this study, we argue that understanding political identities requires a focus on practices—what people do—rather than just what they say. We present both ethical and practical reasons for this shift, offering clear principles that make it easier to analyze how physical actions and performances shape political identities. By focusing on practices, we aim to capture the full range of how people engage with politics, not just through words, but through their actions and bodily expressions.
Why is it important?
Historically, discourse theory has predominantly focused on analysing words and speech as the primary means of interpreting political identities. However, we argue that this narrow focus on language overlooks the profound influence of non-verbal expressions and affect in shaping collective identities. Emotions, symbols, and actions play a significant role in forging these identities, yet methodological approaches within discourse theory remain heavily language-centric, especially reliant on textual analysis.