Abstract
This article draws on Heidegger’s notion of Stimmung (mood, attunement, atmosphere) to further develop the study of public moods in IR. To that end, it synthesises two recent developments in ontological security studies (OSS), the decentred Deleuzian approach that emphasises the role of affective environments in subjects’ sense of and search for ontological security and Heideggerian readings of anxiety as (public) mood. The developed framework maintains OSS’ conceptual focus on anxiety whilst centring the locus of analysis around dynamic affective environments rather than individual subjects. This framework allows for exploring the relationship between anxiety and the radical agency, emerging political subjectivities, and intense (positive) moods it can facilitate. The empirical added value of this framework is illustrated through an analysis of the public mood of anxiety that preceded and enabled the “border opening” in Germany during the so-called migration crisis and the subsequent euphoria it engendered.
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27 October 2022
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Notes
Whilst often referred to as ‘border opening’, Merkel did, in fact, not open the border as Schengen borders are open by default but instead opted not to close them (see Zehfuss 2020).
This means that my reading of Heidegger is strongly influenced by Deleuze (1988) and Deleuze and Guattari (2004) and Deleuze-inspired affect research (see, for example, Massumi 2002; Anderson 2009; Ross 2014). This is important as Heidegger is ever so ambiguous in his writing and often neglects ontic manifestations of being; I, therefore, resort to Deleuze-inspired research and terminology to draw out Stimmung’s implications for individuals’ political subjectivity.
I thank one of the reviewers for this formulation.
Heidegger differentiates between the ontological condition of Befindlichkeit (state-of-mind) and its ontic manifestation of Stimmung (mood). For the sake of theoretical parsimony and conceptual clarity, I refer to both as Stimmung.
There is a general debate whether Heidegger's understanding of fear(fulness) indicates that he does not distinguish between moods and emotions or whether his description of fear is inconsistent with his account of moods. I read fearfulness as a mood which is distinct from but related to the emotion of fear (see also Bollnow 2009; Ratcliffe 2013).
Whilst this led to a temporary increase in arrivals of asylum seekers, especially in Munich, overall, fewer migrants arrived in Germany after the 'border opening' than before it (see Zehfuss 2020).
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Acknowledgements
I wish to thank Christopher Browning and Madeleine Fagan for their feedback on the manuscript and more generally for their advice and enlightening conversations over the last few years. I would also like to thank Anne-Marie Houde, Nina Krickel-Choi, Joseph Haigh, Ben Rosher, and Charlotte Heath-Kelly for their insightful comments on previous versions of the article as well as the editors and the three anonymous reviewers for their constructive and helpful suggestions.
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Gellwitzki, C.N.L. Stimmung and ontological security: anxiety, euphoria, and emerging political subjectivities during the 2015 ‘border opening’ in Germany. J Int Relat Dev 25, 1101–1125 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41268-022-00278-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41268-022-00278-8