Atmospheres of the other: Building and feeling Stockholm's orthodox synagogue

In this article, I use the concept of atmosphere to analyse disparate sources related to the process of sacralisation of the orthodox synagogue Adass Jisroel in modern Stockholm. Using the synagogue as an entry point, I explore the affective landscapes related to its unofficially sacred places in firstly a Pietist orphanage and secondly a cinema, and how they shaped inner-communal relations. The material components of Adass Jisroel's sites elicited different emotions from different visiting bodies: its orthodox members aimed to create a space of religious continuity and communal integrity, reformed guests othered the members, while poorer orthodox Jews felt alienated. By analysing these multiple affective experiences linked to material changes of set architectural designs, I outline, for the first time, the orthodox minority's unstable position between fragility and stability in Sweden's capital from 1870 until the 1940s. On a greater scale, through this case study, I propose that the concept of atmosphere provides the field of emotional geography with conceptual muscle to both excavate silenced minority voices, and explore the role of the built environment in eliciting emotions that shape, cement, contest and transform the inner-communal hierarchal landscape that unofficially sacred places are irrevocably situated in.     

Trauma,Emotions, and Memory in World Politics: The Case of the European Union's Foreign Policy in the Middle East Conflict

This article focuses on the impact of emotions on the European Union (EU)'s international identity and agency in the context of the memory of trauma. Emotions are understood as performances through which an actor expresses itself to others while constructing its identity, creating its agency, and potentially affecting the social order. It is argued that the memory of trauma is translated into EU foreign policy practice through emotional performances of EU representatives. Empirically, we explore this impact in relation to the EU's engagement in the Israel‐Palestinian prolonged conflict that has many underlying emotions linked with past traumatic experiences. By doing so, we aim to instigate a discussion between the emotions literature in International Relations and the European Union studies literature to nuance understanding of the politics of emotions that increasingly constrain what kind of a global actor the EU actually is or can become.     

The relationship between beliefs about emotions and quality of life in irritable bowel syndrome

Suppression of undesirable emotions, as well as beliefs about the unacceptability of experiencing and expressing emotions, have both been shown to be related to poorer health-related outcomes in several clinical groups. Potential models through which these variables relate have yet to be tested in those with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and are therefore examined in the current article. Online questionnaires were administered to people with IBS (n = 84) to test a mediation model in which beliefs about the unacceptability of emotions are associated with greater emotional suppression, which in turn relates to increased affective distress and consequently poorer quality of life. An alternate model to test the direction of effect along with two further models using support-seeking as mediators of the same predictor and outcome were also tested. Emotional suppression and affective distress (in that particular order) mediate the relationship between beliefs about emotions and quality of life IBS. The models using support-seeking as mediators of the relationship between beliefs about emotions and the two outcomes were not supported. These findings suggest a role for emotional processing in medically unexplained symptoms and imply the need to address such beliefs about emotions in psychological therapies.     

Mood and Emotions in Small Groups and Work Teams

Affective influences abound in groups. In this article we propose an organizing model for understanding these affective influences and their effects on group life. We begin with individual-level affective characteristics that members bring to their groups: moods, emotions, sentiments, and emotional intelligence. These affective characteristics then combine to form a group's affective composition. We discuss explicit and implicit processes through which this affective combination occurs by examining the research on emotional contagion, entrainment, modeling, and the manipulation of affect. We also explore how elements of the affective context, such as organizationwide emotion norms and the group's particular emotional history, may serve to constrain or amplify group members' emotions. The outcome, group emotion, results from the combination of the group's affective composition and the affective context in which the group is behaving. Last, we focus on the important interaction between nonaffective factors and affective factors in group life and suggest a possible agenda for future research.     

Affect,infrastructure and activism: The House of Brag's London Queer Social Centre in Brixton,South London

The House of Brag was a queer, anti-racist, feminist squatting collective active between 2012 and 2014. This article pieces together an affective and infrastructural geography of the House of Brag's last project: a squatted social centre in Brixton, south London, in the summer of 2014. Drawing on interviews with members of the collective, this article argues that efforts to think and live social and political alternatives – and the affective dimensions of these efforts – cannot be abstracted from their infrastructures. The material space and infrastructure of the squatted social centre, this article contends, shaped the House of Brag's dynamics and work in crucial ways. In foregrounding these issues, this article contributes to literature on geographies of affect, emotions and social movements, in which conflict and ‘negative’ affects and emotions are often minimised, and which largely overlook the complex material geographies of spaces of activism. In exploring a queer, anti-racist, feminist squatted project in 2010s London, this article also contributes to literature on squatting by focusing on a time period, on politics and on locations largely overlooked.     

The irony of kinship migration and the control of emotions among Malayalis

The article analyses migrants' uses of irony in relation to normative conceptions of intergenerational affection, in Kerala (South India) and in the diaspora. It draws from current understanding of irony not only as a figure of speech but also as an emotionally-charged attitude of scorn and dissatisfaction towards a dominant view of society. The ethnography shows how irony emerges in context where present forms of mobility are set against a past of painful kinship ruptures, and aims at creating a distance between the subject and the emotional charge of the stories recalled. It suggests how the sociological understanding of emotions within processes of contemporary migration should go beyond the 'here and now' of research contexts, to interrogate the relevance of longer family histories. It also argues for the need to look beyond the dominant trope of nostalgia to look at how migrants' emotions towards kin might be moulded by recurrent – and often unresolved – ambivalence. Irony emerges as an important affective frame through which migrants express – and importantly try to control – conflicting emotions as displaced subjects. It constitutes an emotional work through which migrants make sense of events over which they do not feel they have total control, and yet with the intention of asserting their own truth about the parodies and paradoxes of family lives.     

Psychiatry under tyranny: A report on the political abuse of Romanian psychiatry during the ceausescu years

Romanians suffered incredible deprivations of every sort during the decades of Communist dictatorship. Most of the country’s 1,000 psychiatrists, and most of their patients, were victimized by the political system. A few psychiatrists actively engaged in practices amounting to torture. Many, however, became willing or unwilling participants in the political abuse of their profession. Such political abuses were fostered by abusive legislation and abusive law enforcement by the secret police. Abuses included: mass detentions in psychiatric hospitals of dissidents and political undesirables; abusive interpretation of the laws in detaining persons not suffering from mental illness; false, politically motivated diagnoses and treatment; and detention in secret facilities.     

Quality of Life of the Hidden Youth in Hong Kong

Hidden youth was a phenomenon which originated in Japan and later spread to Hong Kong. The youth were described as being in a state of social isolation, marginalization, and prone to emotional disturbances. This may imply that they were suffering from a poor quality of life. However, direct contact with the hidden youth found that some of them are satisfied with their lives. The present study aims to investigate the relationship between the hidden youth’s quality of life and their period and level of social withdrawal. A total of 588 of the hidden youth took part in the study. With the use of mean plots in ANOVA, correlation analysis, regression analysis, and mediation analysis, it was found that the longer the period of social withdrawal, the better the quality of life. The positive correlation between the two variables was mediated by positive emotions derived from social support. On the other hand, as the level of social withdrawal increased, the quality of life decreased. The negative association between the two variables was mediated by negative emotions caused by low levels of social support and a high sense of loneliness. These findings suggest that being “hidden” is the preferred lifestyle of young people and it should not be regarded as a problem that undermines their quality of life.     

Use of Psychiatric Medications in Juvenile Detention Facilities and the Impact of State Placement Policy

The use of psychotropic medications is a significant factor in the overall effort to respond to detained youth with mental illness, yet there are very few studies of psychotropic medication use in juvenile detention settings. It is important to understand the factors that influence the use of mental health services and psychoactive medications in these settings since youth with emotional problems are overrepresented in them. This paper addresses the proportion of youth in these settings who receive mental health services and psychoactive medications. In addition, the impact of a major statewide policy change—the shift of juvenile placement responsibility from the state to local government—on these proportions was examined using 8 years of publicly available data from county probation departments. Multivariate regression analyses of 1,760 observations of quarterly reports from 55 counties showed that the use of both mental health services and psychoactive medications in detention facilities increased concurrently with the policy change. While these proportions had already been gradually increasing in these facilities, it appears that after the policy change they increased even more. This contradicts the aim of most juvenile justice planners—to divert non-violent youth offenders with emotional problems away from incarceration settings and towards community based treatment alternatives. If adequately available, these support services could provide diversion alternatives to prevent inappropriate detentions, and to provide post-detention treatment to prevent lapses in continuity of care and, ultimately, to prevent reoffending.     

Between friends: Making emotions intersubjectively

Analysing qualitative interview material from a project on friendship and spatiality, this article examines the relationship between friendship, emotions and context. In the project's data the workplace emerged as a key site in which people meet new friends and practice friendships. Using the workplace as a case study, the article analyses how context can shape friendships, how emotions are woven throughout the very constitution of friendships, and how friendships can impact upon people's emotional experience of workplaces. Further, I analyse how emotions are actively generated between friends. In this understanding, emotions are not pre-existing states that are located in individuals; rather, emotions are created intersubjectively between friends and in specific contexts.     

Emotional Stability and Affective Self‐regulatory Efficacy Beliefs: Proofs of Integration between Trait Theory and Social Cognitive Theory

The present study aimed to investigate the development and interplay of emotional stability and affective self‐regulatory efficacy beliefs through adolescence to young adulthood. A latent growth curve approach was used to investigate level and stability of emotional stability and self‐efficacy in managing negative emotions and in expressing positive emotions. We found that initial levels of emotional stability and self‐efficacy beliefs are highly correlated. In accordance with the posited hypothesis, the growth rate of perceived self‐efficacy in managing negative emotions predicted the growth rate of emotional stability, whereas the opposite path was not significant. The growth rates of perceived self‐efficacy in expressing positive emotions and emotional stability were not related to each other. Taken together, these findings point to self‐efficacy beliefs as instrumental to the change of traits. Practical implications of results are discussed, highlighting the role of social cognitive theory in supplying the proper strategies to design effective interventions to enable people to make the best use of their potentials. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Healing from the loss of a loved one to suicide

Healing from the Loss of a Loved One to Suicide is a personal journey to creatively process emotions and memories associated with losing my brother in 2012. This auto-ethnography is a patchwork that flows from present to past events in unforeseeable directions. The process of writing transported me back to the moment. I found out about my brother’s death up to present day. It engages the topics of depression, guilt, blame and trauma that survivor’s feel and offers an approach to finding inner peace.     

Unruly grasses: Affective attunements in the ecological restoration of urban native grasslands in Australia

This paper explores affect as an ‘angle of approach’ for re/considering the work of ecological restoration in urban spaces. My focus is on the more-than-human affective dimensions of the reintroduction of native grasses in Melbourne's (Australia) urban parklands. Sara Ahmed suggests that ‘affect is what sticks or sustains or preserves the connection between ideas, values and objects’ (2010, 29), and here I extend this notion to think about the restoration of grasslands not as primarily material transformations (to which we might react), but as the recomposition of the 'ideas, values and objects' that constitute urban park naturecultures. The paper highlights the role of affective relations in the inheritance of landscapes that do not attract widespread positive affection. It employs Sara Ahmed's concept of the affect alien as a figure of nonconformity, to uncover how the affective resonances of grasslands might open new possibilities for attuning to the complex and multiple naturecultures of postcolonial lands.     

When authorities influence followers' affect: The interactive effect of procedural justice and transformational leadership

The present research examined the effect of procedural justice and transformational leadership style on followers' affective responses: Self-esteem and emotions. It was predicted that procedural justice would positively influence both followers' self-esteem and emotions, but particularly so if the leader displayed a transformational style. Results from a scenario experiment, a laboratory experiment, and an organizational survey indeed showed that procedural justice and transformational leadership style interacted to influence followers' self-esteem and emotions, such that the positive relationships between procedural justice and the affective measures were more pronounced when the leadership style was high in transformational behaviour. Implications in terms of integrating the leadership and procedural justice literatures are discussed.     

Inhabiting Forest of Dean borderlands: Feral wild boar and dynamic ecologies of memory and place

Borderlands are dynamic, fluid spaces where multifarious actors and their relations come together in continual tension. The (re)appearance of (nonhuman) animals can lead to the emergence of novel multispecies borderlands, generated through a variety of affective, emotional and material registers with diverging spatial-temporalities. Situated in the Forest of Dean, England, this paper draws on ethnographic research to consider how the unanticipated (re)appearance of feral wild boar has (re-)configured everyday landscapes in myriad ways. In particular, the focus is on how distinct ecologies of memory and place- weaving through pasts and presents, the material and immaterial, individuals and collectives, humans and nonhumans- are created and shaped by embodied practices, encounters, distributed meanings and temporal change. Amidst uncertainty, the ‘Forest’ borderland is shown to be an indeterminate space, where memory simultaneously disrupts and enriches sensations of belonging and emplacement, and can help negotiate interspecies differences. The paper argues it is important to pay attention to the fluxing, fluid agency of animals and how their everyday human relations (dis)connect heterogenous ecologies of memory and place, especially at a time when multispecies landscapes are undergoing rapid, unexpected and un/intentional change.     

Collective emotions

Research on collective emotions has been limited until recently to theories of irrational crowds, scepticism about genuinely group‐level psychological phenomena and analyses of the unconscious or ritual sources of mass affective experience. However, collective emotion is now a thriving research area that combines studies from philosophy, anthropology, sociology, social psychology and neuroscience. This article examines neo‐Durkheimian theories of collective emotions and relevant contributions of discursive psychologists and other social scientists influenced by the “turn to affect.” I argue that future theoretical and empirical investigations should do the following: (1) critically examine theories focusing on diffuse emotional energy and discrete collective emotions by also exploring the generation and production of genuinely collective mixed emotions; (2) clarify problems with “bottom‐up” models of causal mechanisms through exploration of “affective practices”; and (3) explore the implications of Tuomela's ( 2013 ) “top‐down” social ontology of “group agents” as a framework for theories and studies of collective emotion.     

Mapping an emotional topography of an ecological homeland: The case of Sakhalin Island,Russia

Attachment to local environments occurs worldwide, but especially where people use natural resources for everyday survival. On sub-arctic Sakhalin Island, Russia, subsistence and semi-subsistence resource use are increasingly important for many local and indigenous people since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. These people continue to struggle through socioeconomic, political and environmental transformation with minimal aid from the federal center while transnational hydrocarbon extraction in Sakhalin's offshore regions has transformed on- and offshore environments valued by the people of Sakhalin since the mid-1990s. Here, I explore and analyze narratives about emotions expressed about ecologies and resources from indigenous (Nivkh, Evenk) and local viewpoints. Through constant invocation and imagination of Sakhalin's ecological setting as an all-providing, nurturing environment by indigenous and local peoples, negative emotions are attached to current ecological transformation. Here, I argue that the concept of homeland – often explored culturally and politically in local contexts – must expand to include ecological aspects. Long-term subsistence use of Sakhalin's resources gives rise to understandings of the island as an ecological homeland with a specific emotional topography that can be mapped cognitively, providing new conceptualizations of emotional, ecological topographies.     

The Effect of Social Disclosure on the Intensity of Affect Provoked by Autobiographical Memories

Affect associated with negative autobiographical memories fades faster over time than affect associated with positive autobiographical memories (the fading affect bias). Data described in the present article suggest that this bias is observed when people use their own words to describe both the emotions that they originally felt in response to events in their lives and the emotions that they feel when they recall those events. The data also suggest that the fading affect bias is not a consequence of distortion in memory for the emotions experienced at event occurrence, but instead reflects current affective responses to memories for those events. Moreover, this bias has a social component. Frequently disclosed memories evince a stronger fading affect bias than less frequently disclosed memories. Memories disclosed to many types of people evince a stronger fading affect bias than memories disclosed to few types of people. Finally, the relation between social disclosure and fading affect appears to be causal: the results of an experiment demonstrate that social disclosure decreases the fading of pleasant affect and increases the fading of unpleasant affect associated with autobiographical memories.     

Affective forecasts and the Valentine's Day shootings at NIU: People are resilient,but unaware of it

People overestimate the extent to which emotion-producing life events affect subsequent affect. However, research has yet to conclusively demonstrate that this phenomenon occurs following significant trauma affecting entire communities, or whether it applies to predictions of discrete emotions. Exploring such issues, student reports of emotion states were collected both before and after the oncampus Valentine's Day, 2008 shootings at Northern Illinois University (NIU). A separate group of students not on campus when the shootings occurred provided emotion state reports and predictions of the emotions they would expect to experience 2 weeks after a shooting occurred. Examination of these data suggests that: (1) emotion states of NIU students reflected resilience, and (2) students made affective forecasting errors indicating that this resilience was unexpected. These data confirm results of prior affective forecasting studies, extending them to cases of traumatic experiences, and suggest that such studies can expand their focus to explore specific post-event emotions.     

Regulating positive and negative emotions in daily life

The present study examined how people regulate their emotions in daily life and how such regulation is related to their daily affective experience and psychological adjustment. Each day for an average of 3 weeks, participants described how they had regulated their emotions in terms of the reappraisal and suppression (inhibiting the expression) of positive and negative emotions, and they described their emotional experience, self-esteem, and psychological adjustment in terms of Beck's triadic model of depression. Reappraisal was used more often than suppression, and suppressing positive emotions was used less than the other three strategies. In general, regulation through reappraisal was found to be beneficial, whereas regulation by suppression was not. Reappraisal of positive emotions was associated with increases in positive affect, self-esteem, and psychological adjustment, whereas suppressing positive emotions was associated with decreased positive emotion, self-esteem, and psychological adjustment, and increased negative emotions. Moreover, relationships between reappraisal and psychological adjustment and self-esteem were mediated by experienced positive affect, whereas relationships between suppression of positive emotions and self-esteem adjustment were mediated by negative affect.