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Sentimental politics or structural injustice? The ambivalence of emotions for political responsibility

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 May 2020

Naomi Head Open the ORCID record for Naomi Head [Opens in a new window]
Naomi Head*
Affiliation:
Politics and International Relations, University of Glasgow, School of Social and Political Sciences, Adam Smith Building, 40 Bute Gardens, GlasgowG12 8RT, Scotland, UK
*
*Corresponding author. Email: naomi.head@glasgow.ac.uk
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Abstract

Stories and representations of suffering are frequently central to attempts to arouse our emotions and initiate political action. Yet, the evocation of emotion and, in particular, empathy, remains politically ambivalent. It does not necessarily lead to the acknowledgement of political responsibility or to actions to address the historically-constituted roots of contemporary structural injustices. Moving beyond the legal, moral, and institutional boundaries of political responsibility, this article argues for greater recognition of its affective dimensions. In particular, it differentiates between a sentimental politics and testimonial empathy to better understand the affective dynamics of political responsibility. While the former finds close company with pity and a lack of acknowledged political responsibility, the latter offers an ethical–political orientation towards radical reflexivity and social transformation, situating experiences of injustice within wider networks of power, privilege, and agency. Drawing on the work of feminist, cultural, and social theorists, the article offers a critical conceptualisation of testimonial empathy and its limits. The article illustrates the insights offered by re-thinking political responsibility in terms of testimonial empathy through a close reading of a historical account of structural injustice – slavery in the United States – as written in Harriet A. Jacobs’ 1861 slave narrative.

Keywords

political responsibilitytestimonial empathystructural injusticeemotionsslaveryIris Marion YoungHannah Arendt
Type
Original Papers
Information
International Theory , Volume 12 , Issue 3 , November 2020 , pp. 337 - 357
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

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