not the motorcycle diaries

The empathic, embodied, affective, playful, poetic, ludic and [insert more touchy feely adjectives here] aspects of activism are heavily emphasised by the global justice movement, and this is particularly evident in its ‘autonomous’ elements. This is reflected in the literature on autonomy and the GJM, (and more broadly on social theory about contemporary social movements, such as Alberto Melucci’s use of psychoanalysis and sociology to theorise ‘new social movements’). For example, George Katsiaficas describes ‘the eros effect’ which is ‘the intuitive spread of tactics and movements without direct organizational intervention’. Damien Grenfell refers to ‘a moment, not a movement’. At the 2004 Sydney Social Forum, James Goodman suggested that social forums are a form of ‘operationalizing affect’. Kevin McDonald refers to an intense process of ‘becoming the other’ in anti-globalisation activism, where ‘there are parallels between the transformation in grammars of action and the contemporary experience of love’ (2004 p.590). This correlates directly to the logic of the Temporary Autonomous Zone, where it is posed that ’such moments of intensity give shape and meaning to the entirety of a life’ (Bey p.2). Chesters and Welsh illustrate ‘a movement culture that prizes the affective, emotional and intuitive dimensions of collective action’ (2004 p.329). The role of positive energy, passion and inspiration is regularly raised by activists when they are questioned about their motivations and their ideas about social change, and how they have created/are creating it. What other meanings could this have, apart from just making people feel good? Or is it that the feelgood factor is more powerful than we realise?