TY - JOUR
T1 - Heart, Mind and Body
T2 - #NoMorePage3 and the Replenishment of Emotional Energy
AU - McCarthy, Lauren
AU - Glozer, Sarah
N1 - Funding Information:
We would like to extend our sincere thanks to the supportive reviewers and Charlene Zietsma as our Handling Editor throughout the review process – their suggestions have enriched our article immensely. Thanks also to Glen Whelan, Russ Vince, Andy Crane, Jeremy Moon, Kate Grosser and other friendly readers along the way. The article benefitted from presentation at the Academy of Management (Social Issues in Management), ETHOS and the R:ETRO seminar series, among others. Thank you to all attendees’ time and suggestions. Finally, this article is dedicated to all feminist activists fighting for a better world, and trying to keep their emotional energy high during trying times. The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
PY - 2022/3/1
Y1 - 2022/3/1
N2 - Emotional energy is key to disruptive institutional work, but we still know little about what it is, and importantly, how it is re-fuelled. This empirical paper presents an in-depth case study of ‘No More Page 3’ (#NMP3), an Internet-based feminist organisation which fought for the removal of sexualised images of women from a UK newspaper. Facing online misogyny, actors engage in ‘emotional energy replenishment’ to sustain this disruptive institutional work amidst emotional highs and lows. We introduce ‘affective embodiment’ – the corporeal and emotional experiences of the institution – as providing emotional energy in relation to disruptive institutional work. Affective embodiment is surfaced through alignment or misalignment with others’ embodied experiences, and this mediates how actors replenish emotional energy. Alignment with other’s embodied experiences, often connected to online abuse, means emotional energy is replenished through ‘affective solidarity’ (movement towards the collective). Misalignment, surfaced through tensions within the movement, means actors seek replenishment through ‘sensory retreat’ (movement away from the collective). This study contributes to theorisation on institutional work and emotional energy by re-centring the importance of the body alongside emotions, as well as offering important lessons for online organising.
AB - Emotional energy is key to disruptive institutional work, but we still know little about what it is, and importantly, how it is re-fuelled. This empirical paper presents an in-depth case study of ‘No More Page 3’ (#NMP3), an Internet-based feminist organisation which fought for the removal of sexualised images of women from a UK newspaper. Facing online misogyny, actors engage in ‘emotional energy replenishment’ to sustain this disruptive institutional work amidst emotional highs and lows. We introduce ‘affective embodiment’ – the corporeal and emotional experiences of the institution – as providing emotional energy in relation to disruptive institutional work. Affective embodiment is surfaced through alignment or misalignment with others’ embodied experiences, and this mediates how actors replenish emotional energy. Alignment with other’s embodied experiences, often connected to online abuse, means emotional energy is replenished through ‘affective solidarity’ (movement towards the collective). Misalignment, surfaced through tensions within the movement, means actors seek replenishment through ‘sensory retreat’ (movement away from the collective). This study contributes to theorisation on institutional work and emotional energy by re-centring the importance of the body alongside emotions, as well as offering important lessons for online organising.
KW - embodiment
KW - emotional energy
KW - emotions
KW - feminism
KW - institutional work
KW - social media
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85101812964&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/0170840621994501
DO - 10.1177/0170840621994501
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85101812964
SN - 0170-8406
VL - 43
SP - 369
EP - 394
JO - Organization Studies
JF - Organization Studies
IS - 3
ER -