AnthropoloJOY · Cultures of Joy in the Metacrisis: Resistance, Resilience, and Repair in Troubled Times

Joy is rarely the focus of the social sciences but is arguably more important than it has ever been. While crisis might be a ‘structural signature of modernity’ the experience of crisis today is characterised by complex systems themselves in crisis, interacting with each other in unpredictable ways. This ‘metacrisis’ is ubiquitous, enduring, and emotionally exhausting. Yet, for people around the world, living in and through the metacrisis requires joy to sustain them: experiences of joyous self-transcendence that support political resistance, psychological resilience and social repair.AnthropoloJOY is a novel exploratory investigation into the cross-cultural value, experience and expression of joy in contexts of crisis. The project’s research aims are: 1. To gather much-needed empirical and comparative data on the value, experience, and expression of joy in cross-cultural perspective. 2. To develop an innovative, comparative theoretical framework for understanding joy 3. To establish a new epistemological paradigm for collaborative, more inclusive and increasingly decolonised social science. These aims will be achieved by combining four empirically grounded work packages over the first three years of the project with an agenda-setting position piece in year 4 and an ambitious programme of interdisciplinary outreach and collaboration in year 5. AnthropoloJOY innovates by being the first cross-cultural study of joy grounded in long-term qualitative research methods. Moreover, AnthropoloJOY is rigorously structured around an innovative theoretical approach, a novel combination of qualitative and participatory research methods, and a pioneering commitment to fostering a positive research culture. By modelling new and more expansive ways to conduct collaborative research with participants and communities, AnthropoloJOY boldly challenges academic consensus on the crises of modernity and proposes an intervention that committedly emphasises the possibility of change.