The Politics of Affective Societies : An Interdisciplinary Essay Many recent academic and semi academic voices claim that political deliberation has become exceedingly affective and hence destabilizing. Approaching the question from a wide range of angles the authors of this interdisciplinary essay remain sceptical that it is really increased affectivity that constitutes the symptom of our times. They propose instead to reframe the debate by deploying the analytic of affective societies claiming that affect and emotion are in fact present in all social interaction. What changes over time and place are not then the absence or presence of affect and emotions but rather the modes and calibrations of affective and emotional registers. In this manner this essay works towards a theory of affect and the political Frontmatter Editorial Contents Preface 1. Introduction: The Politics of Affective Societies 2. Making Things Public and Private: The Affective Co Production of the Political Sphere 3. Conflict and Consent: The Political Ambivalences of Affect and Emotions 4. Judgment and Contestation: The Affective Life of Norms 5. Conclusions: Affective Societies and the Political Bibliography List of Authors