Taking emotions seriously in climate politics: Towards a dramaturgical understanding of emotions in the policy process.

keywords: drama, citizen engagement and emotions in the energy transition Christina Klubert (corresponding author), Timothy Stacey, Jesse Hoffman, Maarten Hajer The affective dimensions of climate politics have received increasing attention in recent years (Neckel & Hasenfratz, 2021; Ojala et al 2021; Kurt and Pikhala 2022). So far, the role of emotions in policy practice has only been marginally addressed (Voss & Amelung, 2016; Escobar; 2017; Martiskainen & Sovacool, 2021). While policy makers are well aware of the need to engage citizens in climate policy making, research findings show that citizen engagement processes tend to “abstract away from emotions” because these are often perceived as destabilizing forces that, above all, “need to be kept in check” (Hogget and Thompson, 2002:107; Voss & Amelung, 2016; Martiskainen & Sovacool, 2012). Moreover, emotions are projected to be a feature of the part played by citizens, not policy makers. In this paper we offer a practice-based approach in which we analyse the forms of engagement among policy makers and societal actors to come to grips with the role of emotions in climate politics. Specifically, we draw on dramaturgical theory to analyse the grander dramas in which people see themselves as players, the scripts they follow, the roles they play, and how this influences the emotions in the room. Ultimately, we suggest that such an analysis can aid in a process of reconstituting democratic citizen engagement. The article has three aims: to (1) provide a theoretical framework of emotions drawing on relational, interactive theories of emotions (Ahmed, 2004; Scheer, 2012; Mesquita, 2024) and interpretative policy sciences (Yanow, 1996; Wagenaar, 2011); (2) conceptualize the performative and dramaturgical dimensions of emotions in policy contexts(Goffman, 1959; Hajer, 2009); and (3) illustrate this framework based on ethnographic research.