Genealogy of anger: emotions and violence in Argentinean collective actions

Abstract

Anger constitutes an undeniable driving force to comprehend many of the collectiveactions that have traversed the Argentine reality since the return of democracy. As anexpression of a constellation of social emotions that materialize in individuals’ experiences,the anger underpinning protests not only questions the disputes over the “correctways of feeling” in society but also communicates about what it is willing to acknowledgein terms of violence management. Emotion and violence emerge as two privileged lensesto unravel a genealogy of anger that materializes in collective actions. This study aims toapproach the aforementioned relationship through a series of concrete postcards ofArgentine collective action (since 1983). Without striving for exhaustiveness, a series ofpostcards are reconstructed from paradigmatic collective actions, enabling the identificationof “rhythms” in the connections between anger and violence through the interactionsof repertoires and action meanings. The following are analyzed: “escraches”(political actions against individuals accused of crimes against humanity), roadblocks,looting, lynchings and “digital cancellation” actions. Records from virtual ethnographiesand in-person interviews engage in dialogue with media records and existing academicliterature on the selected paradigmatic cases, all aimed at initially characterizing a genealogyof anger in Argentina.