Uneasy laughter: encountering the anti-immigration debate

Abstract

This article interrogates instances of laughter in doing research from a methodological and ethical perspective. Both the theoretical insights of the ‘turn to affect’ and the methodological discussions concerning emotional reflexivity in social sciences are combined in order to explore the ambiguities unravelled by ‘uneasy laughter’ in the particular context of researching the Finnish anti-immigration debate. Through careful reflection, laughter can be recognised as a beginning from which to understand relations of power and the production of whiteness and class in the debate, and the changing place of the researcher in all this. Furthermore, it is suggested that understanding affects as embedded in power relations makes it possible to account also for those affective and emotional reactions that are deemed shameful and ‘wrong’ in doing research. Exploring laughter thus allows approaches in which unruly and ethically questionable affects can be made part of an ethically responsible research.

Shameless hags and tolerance whores: feminist resistance and the affective circuits of online hate

“…Rather, fear, shame, and shamelessness are part of a mutable field of forces that impacts bodies and moves them differently from one state to another. These directions may be surprising: the recipient of hate speech may burst out in laughter over its absurdity, failing to register any of the intended fear, anxiety, or insecurity (see Katariina Mäkinen 2016). Online hate then efficiently truncates the spaces of agency but they equally mobilize bodies into action.…”

“Freedom of speech requires actions”: Exploring the discourse of politicians convicted of hate‐speech against Muslims

“…In the Finnish context, the increase in anti-immigration political rhetoric, including political hate-speech and Islamophobia, did bring about a gradual normalization of such views in the public debate (Lentin & Titley, 2011;M€ akinen, 2016;Pettersson, 2017). This process was largely aided by the social media, through which politicians reach out directly to groups of "likeminded" people and appeal to presumptive voters with radical, yet rhetorically forceful statements that then become picked up by journalists and further circulated in mainstream media (Hatakka, 2017;Horsti, 2015;Keskinen, 2013;Pettersson & Sakki, 2017;).…”

(Un)making ‘extreme’ and ‘ordinary’ whiteness: Activists’ narratives on antiracist mobilisation in Finland

“…Further, classed and gendered divisions (among others) shape the racialised order dominated by whiteness. For instance, accusations of racism have often been proven to imply a classed structure, as racism is associated with the working class and/or an underclass (Lawler, 2012;Mäkinen, 2015). When the figure of 'the racist' (Ahmed, 2012, p. 149-50) is seen as the source of racism, this relies on a classed image of whiteness.…”

“…The image of marginality attached to 'racists' is also observed in research. Depicting 'racists' as classed outcasts (Ahmed, 2012, p. 149-50;Pitcher, 2009, p. 13)-for instance as unrefined, peasant-like, redneck, vulgar, and uneducated, as Mäkinen (2015) describes when summarising Finnish discussions-enables the portrayal of racism as a quality inherent to the irrelevant margins of society.…”