Articles | Volume 70, issue 2
https://doi.org/10.5194/gh-70-141-2015
https://doi.org/10.5194/gh-70-141-2015
Standard article
 | 
15 Apr 2015
Standard article |  | 15 Apr 2015

Can you feel the difference? Emotions as an analytical lens

M. Richter

Abstract. Against the background of emotional geographies, I analyse negotiations of belonging and experiences of difference. Emotions serve as the analytical lens through which these negotiations and experiences are analysed. Based on this notion, I will analyse migrants' accounts with respect to their emotional qualities and spatial articulations. In particular, I will focus on emotional accounts, such as childhood stories and other biographical stories, which are spatially situated. The emotional focus serves thereby as a lens to capture migrants' identification with the social norms and values inscribed and mediated through these spaces. These emotional accounts help us to understand complex stories about social positioning along different axes of difference, complex ways of identification, and resistance to social role models.

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Short summary
The paper focuses on emotions to analyse negotiations of belonging and experiences of difference. Emotional accounts such as childhood stories of second generation Spaniards in Switzerland serve as the empirical material. The analysis of this material exemplifies how such an analytical focus on emotions furthers our understanding of complex stories about social positioning along different axes of difference, complex ways of identification, and resistance to social role models.