Interrogating the Affective Politics of White Victimhood and Resentment in Times of Demagoguery: The Risks for Civics Education

Zembylas, Michalinos

doi:10.1007/s11217-021-09777-6

Cited by 4 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…It also accompanies a shift in contemporary victimhood studies from the traditional harm-based and blame-based discourses to contextual approaches to studying victimhood (Álvarez Berastegi & Hearty, 2019). Therefore, we now see victimhood not as a fixed category but as an increasingly complex and fluid one (Chouliaraki, 2021;Tlostanova, 2019;Zembylas, 2021). According to Zembylas, the "affective logic of victimhood [is] a terrain of struggle over competing claims to suffering, trauma and injury"; where "affective claims" to those injuries become "[tactically mobilized] for moral and political gain" (2021).…”

Section: Understanding Victimhood In the Digital Spacementioning

confidence: 99%

Carrying the cross for justice: Digital traces of victimhood in Sri Lanka

Gamage

2023

UCR

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Victimhood claims in the digital space are often affectively and morally negotiated based on the extent of sharedness of those sentiments and values. However, media-centric and populist political interpretations based on ‘mobilization’ often curtail the exploration of ‘sharedness’ and ‘belonging’ in digital discourses of victimhood. Therefore, this article explores the nature of digital victimhood discourses, their constitution, and how those victimhoods are negotiated in digital collectives. The article combines affective victimhood with chronotope to analyze digital discourses on ‘public acts’ carried out by members of the public seeking justice for the Easter attack victims of 2019. Accordingly, the article focuses on Facebook posts and comment sequences on “Jehan Appuhamy carrying the cross” to mark the third anniversary of the attacks in April 2022. Data is gathered from four Facebook posts containing a collection of videos and images combined with a selected 3142 post-comment sequences. The article finds that affective and moral understandings of victimhood are negotiated in interaction with right-wing populist undertones and resistance discourses of the people’s protest. The narratives of justice, threat, empathy, and solidarity constitute a multifaceted expression of discontent, representing both a struggle against those in power and a quest to connect with like-minded individuals, irrespective of the specific cause for such sentiments. Additionally, it involves rallying support from friends, sharing feelings of discontent, and motivating them to take action. Thus, digital belonging is fractally nested in specific timespace configurations.

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