Affect and critique

A politics of boredom

Bibliographic Data

ID4475223
AuthorsBen Anderson (0000-0002-9541-6142, Durham University, corresponding author)
Year2021
Volume39
Issue2
Pages197-217
Publication date2021-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEnvironment and Planning D Society and Space (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0263-7758 • E-ISSN: 1472-3433
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/02637758211002998
OpenAlexW3154215275
LanguageEN
Citations received47
References cited35

What are the politics of boredom? And how should we relate to boredom? In this paper, I explore these questions through cases where the disaffection and restlessness of boredom have become a matter of concern in the UK and USA at the junctures between Fordism and neoliberalism, and amid today's resurgence of right-wing populism. I argue that what repeats across the critique of the 'ordinary ordinariness' of Fordism, the neoliberal counterrevolution and today's right-wing populism is a 'promise of intensity' - the promise that life will feel eventful and boredom will be absent. As I make this argument, I reflect on the role of critique in the context of the multiplication of modes of inquiry that has accompanied the interest in affect across the humanities and social sciences. Rejecting the dismissal of critique in some affect-related work, I advocate for and exemplify a type of 'diagnostic critique' based on the practice of conjunctural analysis as pioneered by Stuart Hall and colleagues

Aesthetics · Affect (linguistics · Argument (complex analysis · Boredom · Context (archaeology · Dismissal · Epistemology · Fordism · Neoliberalism (international relations · Political science · Politics · Populism · Social science · Sociology · Digital Education and Society · History · Law · Misinformation and Its Impacts · Philosophy

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