Tagged / emotion

#realworldresearch Campaign

BU research, Research news

Great news for the Faculty of Management and Department of Tourism and Hospitality, this month, Emeralds #realworldresearch follows the theme of ‘Happy New You’ and includes a paper published in the British Food Journal:

Lorraine Brown, John Edwards, Heather Hartwell, (2013) “Eating and emotion: focusing on the lunchtime meal”, British Food Journal, Vol. 115 Iss: 2, pp.196 – 208

Further information on the campaign can be seen here:

http://bit.ly/2jDVl53

This article will be on free access until the 17th February 2017

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Emotion, Power and Politics in Richard III, 8 July, 6.30pm, BU at the Freud Museum – Tickets now available

BRIAN, BU research

‘The Psycho-Cultural Dynamics of

Emotion, Power and Politics in

Richard III’

 

Friday 8th July 2016,

6.30-8pm

Venue:

The Freud Museum, 20 Maresfield Gardens, London NW3 5SX

Tickets:

https://freud.org.uk/events/76491/the-psycho-cultural-dynamics-of-emotion-power-and-politics-in-richard-iii/

Richard

The Freud Museum in association with Bournemouth University and the Media and Inner World research network present a special panel discussion on the themes of Shakespeare’s Richard III and the motivations of its characters and the play’s relevance for contemporary understandings of emotion and politics. The event includes the performance of some key speeches from the play as performed by actors from the award-winning theatre ensemble, The Faction.

Panel speakers include:

Michael Rustin (University of East London), Margaret Rustin (Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust), Rachel Valentine Smith and Mark Leipacher (The Faction) Chair: Candida Yates (Bournemouth University).

 

Followed by a drinks reception 8-9pm

& celebration of Candida Yates’ latest book,

The Play of Political Culture, Emotion and Identity, Palgrave Macmillan

 

 

New Publication by Bournemouth Professor Candida Yates: ‘The Play of Political Culture, Emotion and Identity’

BRIAN, BU research, Uncategorized

Yates Politics book imag

Dear colleagues,

I am writing to let you know about the publication of my new book, The Play of Political Culture, Emotion and Identity.

Candida Yates, Professor of Culture and Communication, Bournemouth University

cyates@bournemouth.ac.uk

 

The Play of Political Culture, Emotion and Identity offers a new ‘psycho-cultural’ perspective on the psycho-dynamics of UK political culture and draws on psychoanalysis, cultural and media studies and political sociology to explore the cultural and emotional processes that shape our relationship to politics in the late modern, media age. Against a backdrop of promotional, celebrity culture and personality politics, the book uses the notion of ‘play’ as a metaphor to explore the flirtatious dynamics that are often present in the mediatised, interactive sphere of political culture and the discussion is elaborated upon by discussing different aspects of cultural and political identity, including, gender, class and nation. These themes are explored through selected case studies and examples, including the flirtation of Tony Blair, Joanna Lumley’s Gurkha campaign, Margaret Thatcher’s funeral, David Cameron’s identity as a father and the populist appeal of UKIP politician, Nigel Farage.

Table of contents

1. Introducing Emotion, Identity and the Play of Political Culture
2. Spinning the Unconscious and the Play of Flirtation in Political Culture
3. The Dilemmas of Post-Feminism and the Fantasies of Political Culture
4. Political Culture and the Desire for Emotional Wellbeing
5. The Absent Parent in Political Culture
6. Moving Forward to The Past: Fantasies of Nation Within UK Political Culture
7. Reflections on the Psycho-Cultural Dynamics of Political Culture

Further details can be found at Palgrave Macmillan: 

http://www.palgrave.com/page/detail/the-play-of-political-culture–emotion-and-identity-candida-yates/?sf1=barcode&st1=9780230302525

Some reviews

‘Whether she is discussing the political manifestations of a contemporary crisis in masculinity and fatherhood, postmodern feminism, nostalgia, narcissism, play, or therapy culture, Yates’s psychoanalytic lens illuminates, in a nuanced fashion all too rare today, both regressive social trends toward mastery and progressive, creative potentials for change. This book is essential reading for anyone wishing to understand the complex interplay of fantasy, emotion, identity, media, and politics in the era of neoliberalism.’ – Lynne Layton, Harvard Medical School, USA

‘Exploring the entanglement of media, politics and emotions, this is a bold and original book that should be read by students and scholars in Sociology and Media Studies,and anyone with an interest in contemporary political life. It articulates a psycho-cultural perspective, moving with verve and insight from election politics to celebrity culture and from Russell Brand to poverty porn, offering a psychoanalytically informed reading of British political life and its structures of feeling. A satisfying and thought-provoking read.’ – Professor Rosalind Gill, Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis, City University London, UK

‘Through a psychoanalytic critique of the anxieties, fantasies and obsessions that characterise today’s intensely emotional political culture, Candida Yates’ new book makes a powerful case for the argument that Psychosocial Studies is the new Cultural Studies.’ – Sasha Roseneil, Professor of Sociology and Social Theory, Birkbeck, University of London, UK.

Fusion Investment Fund: Neuroscience has found that emotions are a primary factor in learning to change behaviour: A project to apply and study these findings in many areas of practice (for example, public health, sports science, youth work, neurological rehabilitation, special education, and potentially many others).

Fusion, Fusion Investment Fund

 

We were very fortunate to receive Fusion funding for our collaboration between colleagues and students in Health and Social Sciences, Sports Science, and a variety of external practice partners. Essentially the funding will enable us to obtain psychophysiological recording equipment to be used to measure emotional responses in a wide variety of learning and training settings. Below is a screenshot of a typical recording from this kind of equipment.

 

Image-1

 

Huge progress has been made over the last couple of decades in our understanding of emotion and feelings. A compelling conclusion from this enormous body of work is the primacy of emotion in how we operate in the world. Darwin knew this, as did Freud, but many still cling to the notion of the achievements of homo sapiens (“wise man”!) as founded on cognition and rational thinking. For them, feelings are a vestigial remnant of our evolutionary past, not dissimilar to the appendix – no longer having any purpose, and also potentially a threat to our well being.

Affective neuroscience completely opposes this so-called rational approach: emotions and feelings guided our survival in our evolutionary past, but the big news is that they still do! Accumulations of theory and research from fields such as affective neuroscience, positive psychology, and health psychology support this simple but crucial switch in emphasis. Some everyday practice reveals the primacy of emotion, for example emotionally skilled doctors tend to bring about better health outcomes for their patients, children are taught to pay attention to their ‘uh oh’ signs (involuntary emotional responses of sweaty palms and heart beating faster) to keep them safe. So emotions are not the redundant and fickle “appendix” of our behavioural systems, but in fact are their driving force.

Despite an array of pragmatic findings about the way emotions and feelings work, this largely ‘pure’ body of neuroscience has not been directly applied to any particular field of practice. This project aims to correct that omission. The applications of affective science to how we learn and change our behaviour are potentially enormous, as the physiological emotional measures offer a straightforward ‘window’ into the person’s emotional responses.

The Fusion funding enables us to build on one of the applications, through running a study developing a previous pilot. This will be based on a form of training using natural horsemanship that has been demonstrated to be very successful in behaviour change for young offenders and young people who do not engage with school. This is an example of what it looks like (thanks to TheHorseCourse for the picture):

 

TheHorseCourse picture

 

The equipment, and experience gained through carrying out the initial study, will also allow for projects with other practice partners to go ahead, for example, work with people with acquired brain injuries, and children with profound learning disabilities. If any of this interests you, please get in touch with Sid Carter or Emma Kavanagh, and we’d be glad to tell you more.

 

Seminar on political violence today

BU research

The Politics and Media Research Group in FMC has a very stimulating guest speaker lined up for this afternoon (Monday). Dr. Jeffrey Murer is Lecturer on Collective Violence at the University of St. Andrews, in the School of International Relations. He is unusual for an IR specialist in that he draws deeply on ideas from psychoanalysis in his studies of violent political conflict. The title of his talk is “The Politics of Splitting: Anxiety, Loss and the Anti-Semitic, Anti-Roma Violence of Contemporary Hungary”. While focussing on the situation in Hungary, his talk will illustrate how an interdisciplinary, psycho-social approach can be applied to generate insights into violence in many other contexts.

The talk will be in P406. It will start at 5.00 and be followed, until 6.30, by questions and discussion.

All staff and students are welcome.