Political Sociology of Emotions

Nicolas Demertzis is Professor at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and Director of the National Centre for Social Research (EKKE). His research focuses on political sociology, cultural sociology, political communication, and emotions sociology. He edited Emotions in Politics. The Affect Dimension in Political Tension (2013).

• 1. Τhe Political Sociology of Emotions: An Outline Part I. The Politics of Trauma2. On Trauma and Cultural Trauma3. The Civil War(s) Trauma4. Mediatizing Traumatic Experience and the Emotions 5. Trauma and the Politics of ForgivenessPart II. The Politics of Ressentiment6. On Resentment, Ressentiment, and Political Action7. Populism and the Emotions8. The Emotionality of the Nation-StatePostscript

"This remarkable book, informed by unusually wide-ranging and sophisticated scholarship, is theoretically highly creative. Demertzis makes cultural trauma central to a political sociology of emotions, demonstrates how ressentiment illuminates populism and nationalism, and explains how forgiveness can be a key psychological-cum-moral action for rebuilding the fractured solidarities that threaten contemporary society." — Jeffrey C. Alexander, Lillian Chavenson Saden Professor of Sociology, Yale University, USA."In this work of wide-ranging and deep scholarship, Nicolas Demertzis provides a foundational text for the emergent field of the political sociology of the emotions. At the same time, in his rich analyses of the concepts of cultural trauma and ressentiment, and in their application to Greece, he draws not only on history but on philosophy and psychoanalysis, and shows how interdisciplinary work is central to the understanding of today's major issues. Anyone studying the emotional bases of politics will have much to learn from this book."— Barry Richards, Professor of Political Psychology, Bournemouth University, UK.