Zheng Nengliang and Pedagogies of Affect in Contemporary China. Issue 1 (1st March 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Hizi, Gil
• Is Part Of: Social analysis. Volume 65:Issue 1(2021)
• Page Start: 23
• Page End: 43
• Publication Date: 2021-03-01
• Subjects: affect -- governmentality -- Maoist China -- pedagogies of affect -- self-improvement -- urban China -- zheng nengliang; Sociology -- Periodicals; Ethnology -- Periodicals; Social sciences -- Periodicals; Ethnology; Social sciences; Sociology; Electronic journals; Periodicals; 301.05
• DOI: 10.3167/sa.2020.650102
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0155-977X

Abstract

Abstract: This article examines the role of affect in market-driven self-cultivation. Drawing on a study of extracurricular workshops for interpersonal skills in urban China, I describe programs that prioritize momentary excitement, associated with the state-endorsed colloquialism zheng nengliang (positive energy), while distinguishing this experience from the common registers of the exterior world. I define these settings as 'pedagogies of affect', activities that bring to the fore the short-lived and indeterminant attributes of affect without coherently serving discursive ideologies in trajectories of social engineering or neoliberal governmentality. This phenomenon demonstrates how the expansion of market-driven expertise for 'person-making' to new social groups globally reinforces ethical disjunctures between different social domains, as well as between individuals' practical and aspirational pursuits.