Abstract
In this chapter, I use the public question-and-answer (Q&A) session after a screening of the Australian documentary, Freedom Stories, to unpack the performance of empathy in the context of advocacy for asylum seekers. The affective as well as performative aspects of this empathy demonstrate how ‘emotional communities’ are formed, the manner in which they function and their mediation in late modernity. Beginning with an overview of Australia’s bipartisan political support for mandatory detention of boat arrivals, I emphasise the importance of media narratives to shift public debate and the role of empathy in this process, as well as the need to transcend beyond empathy and into the realm of responsibility and action.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Emotions in Late Modernity |
| Editors | Roger Patulny, Alberto Bellocchi, Rebecca E. Olson, Sukhmani Khorana, Jordan McKenzie, Michelle Peterie |
| Place of Publication | U.K. |
| Publisher | Routledge |
| Pages | 237-249 |
| Number of pages | 13 |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 9781351133319 |
| ISBN (Print) | 9780815354321 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2019 |
Keywords
- refugees
- asylum seekers
- boat people
- mandatory detention
- detention of persons
- Australia
