Justin Van Ness, Erika Summers-Effler
Van Ness, Justin and Erika Summers-Effler. 2018. "Emotions in Social Movements" in The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Social Movements, Second Edition. Eds David A. Snow, Sarah A. Soule, Hanspeter Kriesi, and Holly J. McCammon.
Publication year: 2018

In this chapter, we review the study of emotions in social movements. We begin by situating the absence of emotions in Social Movement studies in relation to Sociology as a field more broadly. Then we review how scholars have theorized emotions in relation to social movement mobilization, commitment, and demobilization. Following this, we draw from studies within the field of Social Movements and the field of Sociology of Emotions to provide some useful ways to distinguish emotions analytically. Next, we draw from Cognitive Social Science, particularly literature on grounded cognition, to emphasize the need for situated analyses of emotion. Finally, we close with a few fruitful paths forward in the study of emotion in Social Movements.