The browser you are using is not supported by this website. All versions of Internet Explorer are no longer supported, either by us or Microsoft (read more here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/windows/end-of-ie-support).

Please use a modern browser to fully experience our website, such as the newest versions of Edge, Chrome, Firefox or Safari etc.

What Are Public Moods?

På svenska

Author

  • Erik Ringmar

Summary, in English

‘Public moods’ are often referred to in laymen’s accounts of public reactions to social events, yet the concept has rarely been invoked by social scientists. Taking public moods seriously as an analytical concept, this article relies on recent work on the moods of individuals as a means of exploring the moods of the public. To be in a certain mood is to attune oneself to the situation in which one finds oneself. Our mood is the report we give on the state of our attunement. A public mood can either be understood as the mood of a certain age, the mood of an audience which jointly attends to a public performance, or the bonding which takes places between bodies which are in close physical proximity to each other. It is in the public mood that emotions, thoughts and plans for action arise.

Publishing year

2018

Language

English

Pages

453-469

Publication/Series

European Journal of Social Theory

Volume

21

Issue

4

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Taylor & Francis

Topic

  • Political Science

Keywords

  • public moods
  • moods
  • embodiment
  • phenomenology
  • social theory
  • attunement

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1461-7137