Politics of Emotions: The Role of Emotions in the Political Activity of Health Workers in the University of the Philippines-Philippine General Hospital (UP-PGH) During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Moving away from the usual top-down approach on the study of social and political movements in post-disaster events, this research focused on its most personal aspect—emotions. This allowed the researchers to step on a distinctive vantage point to better understand the problems concerning the health workers of UP-PGH in their hospital/clinical duties during the COVID-19 pandemic. As the body of literature would suggest that in a setting where it is conducive for anger to be experienced by individuals and/or groups, it is expected that would spark collective political movements. However, why is it that in a highly-distressed working environment such as the UP-PGH amid the unprecedented health crisis, a massive political movement to challenge, or even change, the status quo has never materialized? By utilizing Kemper’s (2001) Structural Approach to Emotions, the researchers discovered the following through a qualitative study: (1) fear suppresses anger, (2) optimism attenuates anger, (3) prevalence of micro-activism. Anger is induced by the failed responses both by the national government and by the hospital administration, and the power politics inside PGH. In addition, fear is produced from the possibility of acquiring COVID-19 infection and from getting reprimanded by the hospital administration. Furthermore, optimism is motivated by the idea of improvements in the future. These two emotions—fear and optimism—added nuance to the contribution of anger to eliciting collective political movements.