Some objects seem especially personal and important to us - be it a quickly packed suitcase, an inherited vase, or a photograph. In Sensitive Objects the authors discuss when, how, and why particular objects appear as 'sensitive'. They do so by analyzing the objects' affective charging in the context of historically embedded practices. Sensitive Objects is a contribution to the upcoming field of 'affect research' that has so far been dominated by psychology and cultural studies, and the authors examine the potential for epistemic gain by connecting the studies of affect with the studies of material culture. The contributors, predominantly ethnologists and anthropologists, use fieldwork to examine how people project affects onto material objects and explore how objects embody or trigger affects and produce affective atmospheres.

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface
• 1. Affect and Material Culture
  • Perspectives and Strategies
• 2. Moods and Emotions
  • Some Philosophical Reflections on the ‘Affective Turn’
• 3. Ethnography and the Choices Posed by the ‘Affective Turn’
• 4. Sensitive Objects of Humanitarian Aid
  • Corporeal Memories and Affective Continuities
• 5. The Titoaffect
  • Tracing Objects and Memories of Socialism in Postsocialist Croatia
• 6. Emotional Baggage
  • Unpacking the Suitcase
• 7. Done by Inheritance
  • A Phenomenological Approach to Affect and Material Culture
• 8. What Alters When the Traditional Sámi Costume Travels?
  • A Study of Affective Investments in the Sápmi
• 9. In the Mood
  • Place and Tools in the Music Industry with a Focus on Entrepreneurship
• 10. Innovation and Embodiment in a Small Town Hotel
• 11. The Performative Museum
  • Designing a Total Experience
• 12. Companion Pieces Written Through a Drift
• Contributors