'A Baby Is a Baby': The Asha Protests and the Sociology of Affective Post-Nationalism. (February 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Tonkiss, Katherine
• Is Part Of: Sociology. Volume 55:Number 1(2021)
• Page Start: 146
• Page End: 162
• Publication Date: 2021-02
• Subjects: affect -- asylum -- borders -- post-nationalism -- solidarity; Sociology -- Periodicals; Sociology -- Periodicals; Sociologie -- Périodiques; Sociologie; Electronic journals; 301.05
• DOI: 10.1177/0038038520909278
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0038-0385

Abstract

Theories of post-nationalism are concerned with deconstructing the relationship between citizenship and national identity. While literature in this field has tended towards macro-institutionalist analysis, recent research has re-articulated post-nationalism as micro-level practice. This article builds on this development by attending to the 'affective conditions' of such micro-political practices. The article draws on research into protests in Brisbane in February 2016 to prevent 'Asha', a child seeking asylum, from being returned to offshore detention. The analysis of this case demonstrates that affect performs a dual function in the practice of post-nationalism, to catalyse action in solidarity with the noncitizen informed primarily by the emotional resonance of a particular rendering of vulnerability, and in re-imagined solidarity with the co-citizen around a post-national community of feeling. Informed by this analysis, the article highlights the complex and fragile nature of a post-national solidarity dependent on intersecting, overlapping and at times problematic, affective conditions.