Emotions in social movilization: the bulgarian protests of 2013

Abstract

Emotions play a key role in the lifecycle of social movements. However, defining the term “emotion” is subject to heated scholarly debate because emotions vary greatly in their nature and manifestations. However, a review of scholarly empirical and theoretical literature seems to show that emotions can best be understood through two tools – Jon Elster’s mechanisms and Deborah Gould’s emotional habitus. It is the objective of this paper to lift these two tools and combine them with the paradigmatic theory on the role of emotions in social mobilization by James M. Jasper and Jeff Goodwin, in order to show what insights emotions can offer about understanding social movements. As a case study, it will review the Bulgarian protest wave from June 2013.