Key articles by Jan Slaby
Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 2025
This text maps out a territory for political philosophy of mind, with emphasis on habit, affect a... more This text maps out a territory for political philosophy of mind, with emphasis on habit, affect and an expanded notion of the social niche. We first survey the historical development of classic philosophy of mind towards the articulation of political philosophy of mind and discuss further influences for the field. We then outline commitments to relationality, dynamism, and emergence, to adopt a post-cognitivist view of cognition as embodied and situated, as ongoing dynamic interaction with the environment. We propose to move beyond the user/resource framework dominant in extended mind approaches and to surpass what Jesper Aagaard calls the "dogma of harmony" prevalent in 4E approaches. Moving beyond the individual subject, towards situated agents shaped by institutional procedures, social domains and subjectification practices, we highlight the role of affect and habit in processes of societal mind-shaping. We propose a critical methodology: inverting key concepts from philosophy of mind to bring out their ambivalent standing amidst oppressive and exploitative social structures, thereby expanding the purview of the socio-material niches in which cognitive and affective capacities are developed and expressed. We discuss work on habit in the enactivist and pragmatist traditions to put our method of concept inversion and niche expansion to work. The article is meant to be an introduction and invitation to join an emerging scholarly effort at the intersection of philosophy of mind, 4E cognitive science and social as well as political philosophy.
Mind & Society, 2024
In this text, I discuss the role that a range of habits in affluent societies play in upholding a... more In this text, I discuss the role that a range of habits in affluent societies play in upholding as well as masking an unsustainable status quo. I show that enactivism, as a philosophical approach to the embodied and embedded mind, offers resources for bringing into focus and critically interrogating such habits of affluence and the environments enabling them. I do this in the context of a critical theory of the unfelt in society: the systematic production of lacunae of emotive concern in social collectives. The lack of proportionate affective and practical responses to the ecological crisis epitomizes this. The article starts with considerations on societal unfeeling, then reviews key elements of enactive approaches to habit, before a fuller picture of habits of affluence is developed, informed by Brand's and Wissen's concept of the imperial mode of living. Finally, two dimensions of habits of affluence are discussed in some detail, which will help flesh out a thematically expanded, politically engaged version of enactivism.
Philosophical Topics, 2023
What I call the unfelt in society refers to different ways in which certain events or conditions ... more What I call the unfelt in society refers to different ways in which certain events or conditions fail to evoke affective responses or give rise to merely sporadic or toned-down modes of emotive concern. This is evident in public (non)responses to the ecological crisis in the Global North. I sketch an approach to the unfelt, drawing on work in phenomenology and on the situated affectivity approach. I focus on structural apathy as the condition of spatial, social and cognitive-affective distance from the devastation and suffering caused by capitalist modes of living. Most members of affluent societies live their lives spatially and 'existentially' removed from the dehumanizing living conditions of those whose exploited labor and (stolen) land enable and sustain that affluence. The resulting apathy amounts to a constitutional inability to grasp, fathom, and sympathize with the plight of those who are forced to endure those conditions. I hold that structural apathy is an underdiscussed baseline of affective injustice. Its analysis can generate insights into the conditions that make forms of affective injustice so pervasive and seemingly 'natural' in western modernity. While the present text broadly contributes to the debate on affective injustice, it also voices some reservations about this debate and its guiding notion.
Emotion Review, 2019
We introduce and develop the concept of ‘affective arrangement’. It is a concept that can help co... more We introduce and develop the concept of ‘affective arrangement’. It is a concept that can help consolidate a non-subjective, relational understanding of affectivity as proposed by some strands of work in cultural studies and continental philosophy in the Spinoza-Deleuze tradition. The concept works as an analytical tool to flesh out how affect unfolds dynamically and often unpredictably in a relational setting, while it is yet modulated in recurring and structured ways. We will show that the concept might be put to work both in interpretive and empirical work on affect and emotion. With this orientation, this paper contributes to the interdisciplinary study of situated affectivity and to the theoretical and conceptual unification of distinct strands of research from several disciplines.
Midwest Studies in Philosophy, 2017
It can be tempting to think of affect as a matter of the present moment – a reaction, a feeling, ... more It can be tempting to think of affect as a matter of the present moment – a reaction, a feeling, an experience or engagement that unfolds right now. This paper will make the case that affect is better thought of as not only temporally extended but as saturated with temporality, especially with the past. In and through affectivity, concrete, ongoing history continues to weigh on present comportment. In order to spell this out, I sketch a Heidegger-inspired perspective. It revolves around two claims. The first is that we should understand what Heidegger calls 'Befindlichkeit' (findingness) as radical situatedness. Affectivity is a matter of 'finding oneself' constellated – thrown – into the world in ways that necessarily outrun what an individual or collective might grasp and process. The second claim is that the temporal dimension, as a relatedness to the past, takes precedence in affect's situatedness. Key to affect is the way in which the past – beenness – continues to hold sway over present comportment, both collectively and individually. In order to articulate this perspective, it is important to overcome the idea that affect must be understood mainly in terms of feeling or of experiential states of other kinds. Better suited to grasp central points about findingness is the concept of 'disclosive posture', as proposed by Katherine Withy. I suggest that this notion should be put at the fore of a phenomenological approach to situated affectivity capable of informing work on affect in the humanities and beyond.
Frontiers in Psychology, 2016
In view of the philosophical problems that vex the debate on situated affectivity, it can seem wi... more In view of the philosophical problems that vex the debate on situated affectivity, it can seem wise to focus on simple cases. Accordingly, theorists often single out scenarios in which an individual employs a device in order to enhance their emotional experience, or to achieve new kinds of experience altogether, such as playing an instrument, going to the movies or sporting a fancy handbag. I argue that this narrow focus on cases that fit a ‘user/resource model’ tends to channel attention away from more complex and also more problematic instances of situated affectivity. Among these are scenarios in which a social domain draws individuals into certain modes of affective interaction, often by way of attunement and habituation to affective styles and interaction patterns that are normative in the domain in question. This can lead to a phenomenon that is not so much ‘mind extension’ than ‘mind invasion’: affectivity is dynamically framed and modulated from without, often contrary to the prior orientations of the individuals in question. As an example, I discuss affective patterns prevalent in today’s corporate workplace. I claim that workplace affect sometimes contributes to what is effectively a ‘hack’ of employees’ subjectivity.
Books by Jan Slaby
Routledge Studies in Affective Societies, 2019
Affect and emotion have come to dominate discourse on social and political life in the mobile and... more Affect and emotion have come to dominate discourse on social and political life in the mobile and networked societies of the early 21st century. This volume introduces a unique collection of essential concepts for theorizing and empirically investigating societies as Affective Societies. The concepts engender insights into the affective foundations of social coexistence and are indispensable to comprehend the many areas of conflict linked to emotion such as migration, political populism, or local and global inequalities. Each chapters provides historical orientation; detailed explication of the concept in question, clear-cut research examples, and an outlook toward future research.
This volume advances a comprehensive transdisciplinary approach to the affective lives of institu... more This volume advances a comprehensive transdisciplinary approach to the affective lives of institutions-theoretical, conceptual, empirical, and critical. With this approach, the volume foregrounds the role of affect in sustaining as well as transforming institutional arrangements that are deeply problematic. As part of its analysis, this book develops a novel understanding of institutional affect. It explores how institutions produce, frame, and condition affective dynamics and emotional repertoires, in ways that engender conformance or resistance to institutional requirements. This collection of works will be important for scholars and students of interdisciplinary affect and emotion studies from a wide range of disciplines, including social sciences, cultural studies, social and cultural anthropology, organizational and institution studies, media studies, social philosophy, aesthetics, and critical theory.
transcript, 2019
Shitstorms, Hate Speech oder virale Videos, die zum Klicken, Liken, Teilen bewegen: Die vernetzte... more Shitstorms, Hate Speech oder virale Videos, die zum Klicken, Liken, Teilen bewegen: Die vernetzte Gesellschaft ist von Affekten getrieben und bringt selbst ganz neue Affekte hervor. Die Beiträge des Bandes nehmen die medientechnologischen Entwicklungen unserer Zeit in den Blick und untersuchen sie aus der Perspektive einer kritischen Affekt- und Sozialphilosophie. Sie zeigen: Soziale Medien und digitale Plattformen sind nicht nur Räume des Austauschs, sie erschaffen Affektökonomien – und darin liegt auch ihre Macht. Indem sie neue Formen des sozialen Umgangs stiften und bestimmen, wie wir kommunizieren, verschieben sie die politische Topographie.
Affect in Relation brings together perspectives from social science and cultural studies to analy... more Affect in Relation brings together perspectives from social science and cultural studies to analyze the formative, subject constituting potentials of affect and emotion. Relational affect is understood not as individual mental states, but as social-relational processes that are both formative and transformative of human subjects.
This volume explores relational affect through a combination of interdisciplinary case studies within four key contexts:
Part I: “Affective Families” deals with the affective dynamics in transnational families who are scattered across several regions and nations.
Part II: “Affect and Place” brings together work on affective placemaking in the contexts of migration and in political movements.
Part III: “Affect at Work” analyzes the affective dimension of contemporary white-collar workplaces
Part IV: “Affect and Media” focuses on the role of media in the formation and mobilization of relational affect.
Beiträge zur welterschließenden Funktion der menschlichen Gefühle mentis PADERBORN Einbandabbildu... more Beiträge zur welterschließenden Funktion der menschlichen Gefühle mentis PADERBORN Einbandabbildung: Schattenspiel © DWerner (fotolia.com) Bibliografische Information der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek verzeichnet diese Publikation in der Deutschen Nationalbibliografie; detaillierte bibliografische Daten sind im Internet über http://dnb.d-nb.de abrufbar. Gedruckt auf umweltfreundlichem, chlorfrei gebleichtem und alterungsbeständigem Papier ISO 9706
More papers (recent & relatively recent) by Jan Slaby
SFB 1171 Working Paper Reihe, 2024
In diesem philosophischen Working Paper versuchen wir eine Klärung der normativen Maßstäbe affekt... more In diesem philosophischen Working Paper versuchen wir eine Klärung der normativen Maßstäbe affektiver Wirklichkeitsbestimmung auf gesellschaftlicher Ebene. Wir verbinden dazu Überlegungen der Philosophie der Emotionen mit sozialphilosophischen Ansätzen und beziehen beides auf den kollektiven Umgang mit der Klima- und Umweltkrise. Der Text beginnt mit einer Charakterisierung menschlicher Affektivität, die sowohl das individuelle Fühlen als auch gesellschaftliche Affektdynamiken umfasst. Auf dieser Grundlage unterscheiden wir anschließend drei Dimensionen emotiver Normativität: epistemische Normativität, praktische Normativität sowie die Normativität ethisch-existenzieller Horizonte. Der Text schließt mit einer Skizze des „Entwurfscharakters“ gesellschaftlicher Affektlagen: dem Potenzial von Emotionen, Wirklichkeit nicht nur zu erfassen, sondern sie auch aktiv und kreativ zu gestalten. Dabei nehmen wir Bezug auf Eva von Redeckers Konzept der Bleibefreiheit.
Wozu Gefühle? Philosophische Reflexionen für Achim Stephan, 2023
Anknüpfend an die Einsichten der Affektforschung im Paradigma der situierten Affektivität sowie a... more Anknüpfend an die Einsichten der Affektforschung im Paradigma der situierten Affektivität sowie an soziologische und sozialpsychologische Überlegungen wird das Konzept eines gesellschaftlichen Wirklichkeitssinns entwickelt. Es geht um die Rolle, die Emotionen und Affekten beim Abschwächen der Wirklichkeitserfassung auf gesellschaftlicher Ebene zukommt. Inwiefern liegt in der sozial organisierten Affektivität ein Schlüssel zum Verständnis von Prozessen einer kollektiven Derealisierung dessen, was ›eigentlich‹ offenkundig ist? Abschnitt 2 umreißt unter Bezug auf Arbeiten zur situierten Affektivität und zu phänomenologischen Gefühlstheorien einen Arbeitsbegriff eines affektiven Wirklichkeitssinns auf gesellschaftlicher Ebene. In Abschnitt 3 werden Materialien aus der soziologischen und sozialpsychologischen Forschung zur gesellschaftlichen Wirklichkeitsbestimmung sondiert, um das Verständnis einer gezielten affektiven Entwirklichung einer Sachlage anzureichern. Dabei geht es um Prozesse der kollektiven ›Verleugnung‹ von Wirklichkeit. Abschnitt 4 sowie das Fazit in Abschnitt 5 setzen das zuvor Entwickelte in Bezug zum Konzept der imperialen Lebensweise (Brand & Wissen 2017) und ergänzen das Verständnis eines gesellschaftlichen Wirklichkeitssinns durch Beschreibungen der Gewohnheitsgefühle konsumorientierter Lebenswelten.
Anthropologie der Emotionen, 2023
Ressourcenintensive fossil-kapitalistische Lebensweisen und deren Affektlagen sind derart umfasse... more Ressourcenintensive fossil-kapitalistische Lebensweisen und deren Affektlagen sind derart umfassend in die Praxis, ins Denken sowie die leiblich-affektive Habitualität westlich-affluenter Subjekte eingesickert, dass es fraglich erscheint, ob sich ein nachhaltiges, praktisch wirksames Umfühlen auf gesellschaftlicher Ebene jemals wird erreichen lassen. Beitrag zur Festschrift für Birgitt Röttger-Rössler, Juni 2023.
Ein wichtiges Thema der Philosophie der Gefühle ist die Art des Weltbezugs, der menschliche Gefüh... more Ein wichtiges Thema der Philosophie der Gefühle ist die Art des Weltbezugs, der menschliche Gefühle auszeichnet. Affektivität erschließt Bedeutsamkeit, ermöglicht Bezugnahmen auf evaluative Aspekte der Wirklichkeit und verknüpft die Anliegen fühlender Personen mit jenen Begebenheiten, die dafür relevant sind. Dies gilt für das Gefühlserleben von Individuen, aber auch auf gesellschaftlicher Ebene, insofern die sozial eingespielte Affektivität Muster der Bedeutsamkeit anlegt, die den Rahmen des Angemessenen abstecken und das Fühlen gesellschaftlicher Akteur:innen orientieren. Weniger Aufmerksamkeit hat bisher erfahren, dass Affektivität auch an der Abwehr oder Neutralisierung möglicher Weltbezüge beteiligt ist. Vieles, das Anteilnahme verdiente und in der Reichweite affektiver Bezugnahmen liegt, wird affektiv abgeblendet, auf Distanz gehalten, ja regelrecht ‚entwirklicht'. Der vorliegende Beitrag schlägt für diese affektive Wirklichkeitsabwehr auf gesellschaftlicher Ebene den Begriff des Ungefühlten vor. Ziel ist es, dieses Konzept als Reflexionsbegriff einer kritischen Sozialphilosophie der Gefühle zu profilieren. Den Bezugspunkt bildet die eskalierende Klima-und Umweltkrise, deren gesellschaftliche Thematisierung auch Konflikte um das "richtige Fühlen" umfasst.
Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 2023
The Covid-19 pandemic put forth a new kind of affective exhaustion. Being forced to stay at home,... more The Covid-19 pandemic put forth a new kind of affective exhaustion. Being forced to stay at home, diminish social interactions and reduce the scale of their everyday mobility, many people experienced boredom, sluggishness, and existential immobility. While state-imposed pandemic policies changed rapidly, everyday life remained strangely unmoving. A sense of being stuck unfurled-as if not only social life, but time itself had come to a halt. At the same time, there was a latent sense of tension and increased aggressiveness which became manifest not only in protests and riots, but also in the texture of everyday life. In this contribution, we argue that both of these states-the feeling of being stuck, and the feeling that this putative tranquility is nothing but the calm before a storm-can be conceptualized as affective stasis. Through a rearticulation of the ancient concept of stasis, we show that these two at first glance incongruous affective conditions are intricately entangled. In Ancient Greek, the term stasis meant "stand, standing, stance". Being used in a wide variety of contexts-politics, navigation, sports, rhetoric, medicine, and others-stasis took on different meanings which can be semantically organized around two opposite poles: one is the total absence of motion, and the other is an event of radical and often violent social and political change. Drawing on affect theory, phenomenology, and ancient Greek semantics, we propose affective stasis as a novel conceptual framework for political phenomenology.
Methodologies of Affective Experimentation, 2022
In this text we construe affect as a conservative force, as glue that holds social life in place.... more In this text we construe affect as a conservative force, as glue that holds social life in place. With this starting point, we direct our attention towards the unfolding of the ecological crises. Using the case of ‘automobile supremacy’, we discuss a paradigmatic affective formation that keeps Western societies deadlocked in a loop of business as usual, preventing them from adequately addressing the climate catastrophe. Drawing on the concepts of affective arrangement and affective milieu, we chart some of the affective groundings of automobile supremacy and of the widespread failure to overcome the status quo. In response to this conservative thrust of affect, we then survey how ossified affective formations can be disrupted and eventually left behind. Can affect itself be deployed as a resource to disturb, fracture, and break sedimented social formations and patterns? In search of an answer, we explore prospects of obstruction leaning on affective experimentation as a creative method of disruption. By discussing ways to disturb automobility in its unfettered flow, we provide an angle on modes of disruption as small-scale openings that abruptly and momentarily halt the affective relations that were sustaining social formations before.
Journal of Consciousness Studies, 2022
This paper develops elements of a phenomenological account of how interpersonal care contributes ... more This paper develops elements of a phenomenological account of how interpersonal care contributes to the structure of intentionality. It does so by reflecting on a first-person account of parental grief by the poet and thinker Denise Riley. Her autobiographical notes on the aftermath of the death of her adult son revolve around a marked experience of altered temporal flow. By relating what she considers to be an almost unspeakable alteration in her experience of time, Riley unearths a level of nuanced phenomenological reflection that can inform philosophical studies of lived time and intentionality. The paper will build on Riley’s observations on altered temporal experience in grief to explore the entanglement of temporality and intersubjectivity in the constitution of intentionality. It will be demonstrated that and how a phenomenological study of grief can directly speak to key concerns of the philosophy of mind and of interdisciplinary consciousness studies.
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Key articles by Jan Slaby
Books by Jan Slaby
This volume explores relational affect through a combination of interdisciplinary case studies within four key contexts:
Part I: “Affective Families” deals with the affective dynamics in transnational families who are scattered across several regions and nations.
Part II: “Affect and Place” brings together work on affective placemaking in the contexts of migration and in political movements.
Part III: “Affect at Work” analyzes the affective dimension of contemporary white-collar workplaces
Part IV: “Affect and Media” focuses on the role of media in the formation and mobilization of relational affect.
More papers (recent & relatively recent) by Jan Slaby
This volume explores relational affect through a combination of interdisciplinary case studies within four key contexts:
Part I: “Affective Families” deals with the affective dynamics in transnational families who are scattered across several regions and nations.
Part II: “Affect and Place” brings together work on affective placemaking in the contexts of migration and in political movements.
Part III: “Affect at Work” analyzes the affective dimension of contemporary white-collar workplaces
Part IV: “Affect and Media” focuses on the role of media in the formation and mobilization of relational affect.
In this initial entry of the Affective Societies: Key Concepts volume we outline a basic understanding of affect circumscribing a general tendency that we deem fruitful as an analytical perspective. This understanding builds on a notion of affect as relational dynamics between evolving bodies in a setting, thus contrasting with approaches to affect as inner states, feelings or emotions. This conception of affect – mainly developed from materials found in the philosophy of Baruch Spinoza, read through Gilles Deleuze – is generative of further working concepts apt to illuminate the nexus between affect, power and subjectivity.
The text explains Heidegger's choice of the term 'Befindlichkeit', weighs different options of translating it into English - e.g. disposedness, findingness, situatedness, attunement - and discusses the relation of disposedness to temporality resp. historicity.
(Contribution to the Cambridge Heidegger Lexicon, published June 2020, Cambridge UP)
BRIAN MASSUMI: Politics of Affect, Cambridge 2015. Polity Press.
JUDITH MOHRMANN: Affekt und Revolution, Frankfurt/M. 2015. Campus.
MARTHA NUSSBAUM: Politische Emotionen, Berlin 2014. Suhrkamp.
JOHN PROTEVI: Political Affect, Minneapolis 2009. University of Minnesota Press.
Online event, Freie Universität Berlin, March 4, 11, 18 & 25, 2021
Are emotions vehicles of knowledge, and if yes, in virtue of which features? What is the role of emotions in social epistemic practices? What is the impact of local affective arrangements on epistemic communities?
In this workshop we will discuss the epistemic value of emotions at the intersection of philosophy of emotion and social epistemology. The aim is to foster an understanding of the role played by emotions in epistemic life. Different philosophical approaches and methodologies are brought into critical conversation.
Freie Universität Berlin, May 17 & 18, 2018
Places are limited, registration required
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PROGRAMM:
18.00 Uhr "50 Jahre Theorie. Zum Jubiläum eines Genres"
Festvortrag von Philipp Felsch
im Anschluss: "Philosophie als Subkultur?"
Podiumsdiskussion mit Natasha A. Kelly, Jule Govrin & Philipp Felsch
Moderation: Jorinde Schulz & Rainer Mühlhoff
20.30 Uhr: Verabschiedung der Absolvent*innen des Instituts für Philosophie
Festlicher Empfang und Party der Fachschaftsinitiative
Ort: Souterrain des Instituts für Philosophie der Freien Universität Berlin,
Habelschwerdter Allee 30, 14195 Berlin
https://www.facebook.com/events/175025753050999/
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PHILOSOPHIE ALS SUBKULTUR?
Die letzten Jahrzehnte haben einen Exodus der Philosophie aus den monodisziplinären Instituten gebracht: in die Gender Studies, Kultur- und Politikwissenschaften – in die Performancekunst, Alternativzirkel und politische Kollektive. Hier schafft sie vermeintlich, was in geordneter Seminaratmosphäre und im Bologna-Korsett nicht immer gelingt: Das Denken blüht, trägt Früchte, kann wuchern und wirken.
Einige beklagen Relevanzverlust und Beliebigkeit der einstigen Bastion der Wahrheit. Andere sehen darin die logische Folge der Postmoderne, nach welcher die Mutter der Wissenschaften gar nicht mehr anders denn als Disziplinen unterwandernde Subkultur in Erscheinung treten kann.
Berlin ist nicht nur globales Zentrum der Untergrundszenen – sondern auch historischer Ort einer Subkulturalisierung der theoretischen Praxis. Bereits in den 60ern nisten sich Begriffsarbeit und philosophische Analysen in diversen alternativen Lebensformen der eingekapselten Mauerstadt ein, um von hier aus Weltveränderung anzutreiben. Bis heute geben die theorieaffinen Szenen der Hipstermetropole Raum für Stimmen, die aus universitären Kontexten ausgeschlossen werden oder nur allzu gerne freiwillig gegangen sind.
Philipp Felsch gibt in seinem Festvortrag eine Rückschau auf die diversen Berliner Theoriemilieus seit den 1960er Jahren. Die anschließende Podiumsdiskussion versucht eine Lagebestimmung: Was ist heute ein guter Ort für philosophische Praxis? Unter welchen Bedingungen wird Philosophie gemacht – an den akademischen Instituten mit ihren disziplinären Verengungen und zunehmenden Wettbewerbsregimes, in den diversen Szenen mit ihren Oberflächlichkeiten und prekären Existenzformen? Braucht die Begriffsarbeit der Philosophie wieder mehr Kontemplation, Disziplin und Rückzug? Oder muss sie mehr denn je den Sprung aus ihren akademischen Blasen wagen?
Diese Fragen und Themen stehen beim diesjährigen Institutstag zur Diskussion. Wir freuen uns auf Ihre & Eure Einmischungen!
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Philipp Felsch ist Junior-Professor für Geschichte der Humanwissenschaften an der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin und Autor des Buchs “Der lange Sommer der Theorie” (2015, C.H. Beck).
Natasha A. Kelly ist akademische Aktivistin, Kommunikationswissenschaftlerin und Soziologin mit den Forschungsschwerpunkten visuelle Kommunikation, Kolonialismus und Feminismus. Sie ist Autorin des Buchs "Afrokultur. Der Raum zwischen gestern und morgen" (2016, Unrast-Verlag).
Jule Govrin ist Philosophin und Kulturtheoretikerin. Nachdem sie am Institut für Philosophie und der FSGS zum Verhältnis von Begehren und Ökonomie promoviert hat, ist sie aktuell Gastwissenschaftlerin an der EHSS in Paris. Sie ist Autorin des Buchs “Sex, Gott und Kapital. Houellebecqs Unterwerfung zwischen neoreaktionärer Rhetorik und
postsäkulären Politiken” (2016, Edition Assemblage).
Organisation: Arbeitsbereich Jan Slaby
Kontakt: Rainer Mühlhoff, rainer.muehlhoff@fu-berlin.de
Speakers include: Will Davies, Judith Revel, Melissa Gregg, Martin Saar, Robert Seyfert, Jessica Pykett, Rainer Mühlhoff, Donovan Schaefer, Carolin Wiedemann, Nadine Marquardt
Participation is free but please register to enable our planning of the event. Send an e-mail with the subject “Registration Governing by Affect”
to jorinde.schulz@posteo.de. Please include your name and affiliation.
Research Center Affective Societies is based on the
assumption that affect unfolds essentially in relation
– both interpersonally and in the form of deep attachments
to places, collectives, technologies and artifacts.
Accordingly, affect has to be conceptualized
as a dynamic relationality that traverses between and
across individuals and not as inner ‘mental states‘. Affect
constitutes human subjects as it binds them into interpersonal, material and technological constellations.
You can find a video of the talk here: https://www.socialpath.org/451550811
The Covid-19 pandemic put forth a strange new kind of exhaustion. Being forced to stay at home, diminish social interactions and reduce the scale of their everyday mobility, many people experienced boredom, sluggishness, languishment, and existential immobility. While state-imposed pandemic policies changed with rapid frequency, everyday life remained strangely unmoving. A sense of being stuck unfurled – as if not only social life, but time itself had come to a halt. At the same time, however, there was also a latent sense of tension and increased aggressiveness which became manifest not only in protests and riots but also in the texture of everyday life. In our paper, we want to argue that both of these states―the feeling of being stuck on the one side, and the feeling that this tranquility is nothing but the calm before a storm on the other side―can be conceptualized as affective stasis. Through a re-articulation of the ancient concept of stasis, we what to show that these two at first glance incongruous affective states are, in fact, intricately tied to each other. In Ancient Greek, the term stasis basically meant “stand, standing, stance”. Being used in a wide variety of contexts―politics in the first place, but also navigation, sports, rhetoric, and medicine―stasis took on different meanings which can be semantically organized around two opposite poles: the first one being characterized through the total absence of motion, and the second one being characterized through an immediate event of radical and often violent social and political change. Drawing on affect theory, social phenomenology, and ancient Greek semantics, we want to argue that affective stasis provides a conceptual framework that enables us to better understand the affective climate of the pandemic in which stagnation and flux, inertia and change came to intertwine in peculiar ways. In fact, this affective climate might not only be characteristic of the Covid-19 pandemic but also teach us something about the worn-out condition of late-capitalist Western societies in general.