Between Affects and Norms

Abstract

Abstract This article seeks to explore the meaning of emotional content in a transnational public sphere, in particular with regard to the concept of solidarity. The main normative question that the author discusses here is how far it is possible – if it’s the case at all – to move beyond the basic structure of nation-linked patriotic feeling to solidarity as a transnational political emotion. He divides his argument into two steps. First, he analyzes how the concept of constitutional patriotism could be reframed around the contours of post-national contexts. He suggests that Hegel’s concept of patriotism as a political disposition can contribute to a transnational framework. In a second step, the author discusses solidarity as a transnational political emotion, arguing that one should have in view both its formative process and its contingencies in order to understand the institutional and symbolic mediation of affective contents of social praxis.