Collective Effervescence noun
col·lec·tive ef·fer·ves·cence kə-ˈlek-tiv ˌe-fər-ˈve-sᵊn(t)s
Standard definition unavailable.
Collective effervescence is the feeling of energy and harmony when people are engaged in a shared purpose. It is a joie de vivre that manifests when we share moments with others, such as being in a stadium that erupts in simultaneous applause when a musician returns for an encore performance. It is an experience that is familiar to those of us who work in education.-Core Collaborative
Durkheim coined the term ‘collective effervescence’ to indicate how communal gatherings intensify, electrify and enlarge religious experience. Bringing people together in close physical proximity ‘generates a kind of electricity that quickly transports them to an extraordinary degree of exaltation’ (Durkheim, 2001: 162). Collectively experienced euphoria helps to reaffirm social bonds:
Collective effervescence allows society to recharge its batteries, to stay with Durkheim's electrical metaphor. Every society needs to reaffirm its moral unity through meetings, gatherings, rituals, ceremonies or assemblies.-Alex Law: Professor of Sociology at Abertay University, Dundee
Collective effervescence is the synchrony you feel when you slide into rhythm with strangers on a dance floor, colleagues in a brainstorming session, cousins at a religious service or teammates on a soccer field.-Linda Merad
“Once the individuals are gathered together, a sort of Electricity is generated from their closeness and quickly launches them to an extraordinary height. Of exaltation. Every emotion expressed resonates without interference in consciousnesses that are wide open to external impressions, each one echoing the others. The initial impulse is thereby amplified each time it is echoed, like an avalanche that grows As it goes along. And since passions so heated and so free from all control cannot help But spill over, from every side there are nothing but wild movements, shouts, downright howls, and deafening noises of all kinds that further intensify the state they are expressing. Probably because a collective emotion cannot be expressed collectively without some order that permits harmony and unison of movement, these gestures and cries tend to fall into rhythm and regularity, and from there into songs and dances.-Émile Durkheim
What do you see in these photos? Big moments? Small moments? Joy? Happiness? Daily life? What about the interactions do you note? The volume of someone’s smile? How they orient their body towards another? The hand gestures they make?What do you see in these photos? The hand gestures they make?
What is the worth of a moment? Can the same interaction not be perceived differently by different people? Even the same person’s comprehension of a situation can change in the span of a few seconds.
This project started out with a goal. To show moments of Black joy - Collective Effervescence in Black spaces. But over time I have been grappling with this thought: Is Black joy Collective Effervesce? Can someone not feel the same sense of satisfaction and belonging whether they are shouting at the top of their lungs in a room full of people or enjoying a moment with a friend. What makes the “big” moments big and the “small” moments small? Do I even have the authority to label these moments? Am I just imposing my feelings onto others? These are questions I have yet to resolve.