Affective Governmentality

Abstract

This article questions the extent to which calculable numbers are indispensable to the government of conduct. By focusing on the role played by disgust in the government of sexual minorities in Uganda, it provides an account of government by emotion, or affective governmentality. This article draws on the literature on disgust, appropriating elements from the various disciplines and perspectives and bringing them under a Foucauldian umbrella. It explores two techniques through which attempts were made to arouse disgust: the sermon and the tabloid exposé. Although such techniques were performed by agents who operated beyond the state, this article contends that the emergence of the Anti-Homosexuality Act 2014 cannot be accounted for without considering the role played by disgust.

Social geography III: Emotions and affective spatialities

“…Other research has considered the ‘emotional subjectivities’ (Ho, 2009:789) and ‘affective governmentality’ (Ashworth, 2017 cited in Strong, 2021:76) that shape people’s everyday attitudes towards the nation-state and the national community. In a review paper on immigrant investor schemes 1 , Peck and Hammett (2022) call for attention to how ordinary citizens feel towards unwelcomed changes to their local landscapes, housing and national identity when their governments attempt to diversify foreign investment and economic development by courting the super-rich from abroad (also see earlier work by Mitchell, 2004; Ley, 2010).…”