This book offers an interdisciplinary analysis of current formations of publics that is informed by in-depth knowledge of affect and emotion theory.

Using empirical case studies from contexts as diverse as India, Pakistan, Tanzania and America as well as Europe, the book challenges dichotomous distinctions between private and public. Instead, publics are understood as a relational structure that encompasses both people and their physical and mediatized environment. While each kind of public is affectively constituted, the intensity of its affective attunement varies considerably.

The volume is aimed at academic readers interested in understanding the dynamic and fluid forms of contemporary formation of publics - be it digital or face-to-face encounters as well as in the intersection of both forms. This includes researchers from media and communication studies, social anthropology, theatre or literary studies. It is aimed at advanced students of these disciplines who are interested in the unfolding of contemporary publics.

Margreth Lünenborg is Professor of Media and Communication Studies at the Freie Universität Berlin. Her research focuses on recent changes in journalism due to digitization, gender media studies, migration and media. In CRC "Affective Societies" she heads a research project on "Journalism and its order of emotions" analyzing the affective regime of migration coverage. With a focus on affect and emotions, she has worked theoretically and empirically on questions of mediated affect, affective publics and the affective structure of digital media platforms. Her most recent book is Affective Media Practices (2021, with C. Töpper, L. Sūna, T. Maier). She co-edited the special issue "Global Inequalities in the Wake of Covid-19: Gender, Pandemic, and Media Gaps" (2023) with M. Siemon and W. Reißmann. She is co-editor of the book series Critical Studies in Media and Communication (transcript).

Birgitt Röttger-Rössler is Senior Professor of Social and Cultural Anthropology at Freie Universität Berlin, Germany. She is specialized in psychological anthropology with a particular focus on the interdisciplinary study of emotion and affect. She initiated the CRC "Affective Societies," which she directed from 2015 to 2022. Her latest research focuses on childhood, socialization, parenting and emotional development in cultural comparison as well as in migration contexts. Besides this she deals with the challenges of data management and data sharing in social anthropology. Her regional focus is on Southeast Asian societies (Indonesia and Vietnam). She serves as editor of two interdisciplinary books series: Routledge Studies in Affective Societies (with D. Kolesch) and Emotion Cultures (with A.von Poser, transcript).