ANTHROPOLOGY, AFFECTS AND POLITICS IN CATALONIA: IDEAS FOR ETHNOGRAPHIC RESEARCH

Abstract

In this article, we consider politics, emotions and affects as essential fields for anthropology Drawing from a research project on emotions and politics in the Catalan sovereign/secessionist movement carried out between 2019 and 2021, we propose useful models for the theoretical and methodological discussion about affects and ethnographic/empirical fieldwork. We propose to consider affects as politically ambivalent and as social glue. This turns them into key elements for social analysis and critique but requires refining of our tools. Different works have argued that the methodological dimension is perhaps the pending subject of the affective turn: this text aims to contribute to this debate. On the other side, our preliminary results of research show that an anthropological approach to politics now needs to consider affects and how fear shaped Catalan secessionist activism after 1 October 2017.