Affect theory and Judith Butler: Methodological implications for educational research

This chapter turns to affect theory and Judith Butler to think with some of her arguments about affect and emotion and discusses the methodological implications for educational research. The first part takes on Butler�s recent theorization of vulnerability, affect, and grievable lives and shows the methodological possibilities that are opened to study affect and emotion. The second part provides three narrative fragments from the author�s long-time ethnographic work in Greek-Cypriot schools to concretize the methodological moves that are necessary to conceptualize and analyze emotions in education within a Butlerian framework. The conclusion argues that given the insights from Butler�s theory, educational researchers might need to develop more innovative and evocative ways of writing up their accounts in order to �show� the performativity of emotions and affects they study. � Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016.