Paper Short Abstract:

This talks investigates how labor and emotions relate within the affective space of modern postural yoga (MPY) in Turkey with a view as to peel and thus examine two layers of emotional labor: “emotional toll” and “emotional spillover.”

Paper Abstract:

This talks investigates how labor and emotions relate within the affective space of modern postural yoga (MPY) in Turkey with a view as to peel and thus examine two layers of emotional labor: “emotional toll” and “emotional spillover.” I argue that MPY imposes competition and rivalry on instructors which takes an emotional toll especially since they must manage norms around “disinterestedness” given yoga’s affective normative space and the everyday struggle to earn a living amidst precarity. Second, I argue that MPY is characterized by a therapeutic invasion as part of global “psychotherapeutic” domination which not only pressures instructors in Turkey to perform certain emotions and hide others during yoga sessions but also spills over into their everyday creating lasting impacts on their emotional practices and sociabilities. The talk is based on 22 in-depth interviews I conducted with yoga instructors in 2022 and 2023, mostly in Istanbul as well as my observations at an Istanbul yoga studio between 2011 and 2020.