The atmospheric "we" : moods and collective feelings

“Is there an atmospheric ‘we’? And if so, to what extent does it differ from what one calls, according to the respective disciplines, ‘Zeitgeist’ or ‘style’, ‘climate’ or ‘mentality’, ‘habitus’ or ‘collective imagination’, ‘mood’ or ‘collective emotion’, etc.? I will try to show that the leitmotif of an authentic neo-phenomenological investigation of intersubjective and collective atmospheres […] goes through the dimension of (not only individual) felt bodily resonance that atmospheric feelings authoritatively arouse” What contribution can the atmospherological approach make to the debate on collective feelings? In answering this question, the book provides a brief introduction to the so-called “atmospheric turn”, examines the complex emotional “games” to which atmospheres give rise and the rest-realist background underlying their inclusion in the unprecedented ontological category of quasi-things. It then investigates what the power of atmospheric feelings is and how there may be an “atmospheric competence” relating both to the intentional generation of atmospheres and to the ability not to be manipulated by them, thus also addressing the problem of whether collective feelings are atmospheres or moods. It finally explores what kind of “we” a collective atmosphere is based on and applies this perspective both to the notion of “well being” and two oppressive atmospheres like permanent emergency and the uncanny.