Stirring culture

Moral batteries and public characters in the battle over Moscow's renovation

Datos Bibliográficos

ID3833012
AutoresJames M Jasper (City University of New York, autor de correspondencia), Anna Zhelnina (0000-0001-6558-2281, University of Helsinki)
Año2023
Volumen47
Número1
Páginas43-59
Fecha de publicación2023-03-01
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaCapital & Class (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0309-8168 • E-ISSN: 2041-0980
EditorialSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/03098168221137172
OpenAlexW4309388427
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas4
Referencias citadas24

Just as scholars used culture to 'fill in' our understanding of what was happening inside structural processes, so emotions can fill in many cultural concepts deployed in theories of social movement recruitment, decision-making, and impacts. Looking at the controversy around Moscow's Renovation, a giant urban renewal project launched in 2017, we describe how both sides tried to recruit and persuade others. We analyze two examples of carriers of cultural meaning that are often described in idealistic, cognitive fashion, to reveal the emotions that give them their power to move people. Moral batteries are pairs of emotions, one positive and the other negative, which draw people toward one pole as they repel them from the other. In particular, we discuss binaries based on time, before-and-after contrasts, which have not previously been adequately recognized. In addition to moral batteries, we look at public characters, especially villains who get blamed and minions who are ridiculed; these are often contrasted with good characters such as victims or heroes. Characters can be applied to public figures such as politicians or take the form of group stereotypes. Like moral batteries, characters fuse cognitive elements, such as words and images, with the emotions that are supposed to accompany them. Energized by the recent inclusion of emotions, cultural theory still has something new to offer to explanations of social movements

Aesthetics · Battle · Epistemology · Happening · Sociology · Cultural Differences and Values · Gender Studies · History · Philosophy · Psychology · Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment · Social and Cultural Dynamics · Social Psychology

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