Open AccessNations, materialities and affects
Author(s) -
Peter Merriman,
Rhys Jones
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
progress in human geography
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 4.283
H-Index - 146
eISSN - 1477-0288
pISSN - 0309-1325
DOI - 10.1177/0309132516649453
Subject(s) - foregrounding , materiality (auditing) , feeling , nationalism , aesthetics , national identity , affect (linguistics) , sociology , political science , social psychology , psychology , art , communication , law , politics , literature
In this paper we demonstrate how writings on affect, materiality and relationality necessitate a rethinking of theories of the nation, focussing on the intermittent emergence and flickering presence of nation-ness and national identity. In moving beyond Billig?s (1995) notion of ?banal nationalism?, we argue that the presencing/absencing, foregrounding/backgrounding, and individualizing/collectivizing of feelings results from the differential capacities for bodies to affect or be affected and the assembling of particular configurations of bodies and materials. We demonstrate this through a discussion of how national feelings and affects have gathered around two infrastructures in Wales, the A470 road and Severn Bridge.Peer reviewe
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