Affective dissonance between Turkish climate activists and the global youth movement

This article investigates how emotions break movements rather than build them, contrary to the literature on emotions. In doing so, it analyzes the Turkish youth climate movement’s dissociation from the global movement, Fridays for Future. It argues that affective dissonance emerged when Turkish activists’ national movement identity clashed with their sense of belonging to the transnational movement. This article shows the importance of affective dissonance, drawing on in-depth interviews (n = 15) and the diachronic content analysis of the group’s Instagram page, showing how affective dissonance informed Turkish activists’ decision to dissociate despite its negative impact on the movement’s activity level. This paper suggests that the negative impact of affect and emotions might increase in digitally figured transnational movements, which are typically built on weak ties and minimally defined principles, leading them to downplay the possibility of conflicts arising.