The affective politics of hatred: implications for education

Abstract

This paper argues that using the notion of ambivalence in understanding ethnic hatred can be helpful to educators who struggle to address the pedagogical implications of students’ feelings of hatred. It is suggested that, although hate feelings are difficult to change, unraveling the ambivalence in the affective politics of hatred creates possibilities for enriching educators and students’ perspectives on mutual understanding and solidarity with others. Drawing on insights from an action research project conducted in a higher education institution in the ethnically‐divided Cyprus, the author shows how the notion of hatred as ambivalence constitutes an important step in initiating a subversive analysis.