THE BORDERS OF LOVE IN SOCIAL STUDIES: CULTIVATING CIVIC IDENTITY THROUGH THE POLITICS OF EMOTION

Abstract

       This article examines the concept of the Cultural Politics of Emotions as embedded in Thailand’s 2008 Core Curriculum for Social Studies, Religion, and Culture. Drawing on critical curriculum analysis, the study investigates how emotions  particularly love  are institutionally constructed and mobilized as political instruments within formal education. Rather than treating love as a purely personal or morally neutral sentiment, the analysis demonstrates how it functions as a socially regulated emotion that shapes patterns of social relations, moral reasoning, and civic belonging.  The findings reveal that love is systematically embedded in curricular content, classroom practices, student development activities, and school-sponsored cultural rituals. Through these mechanisms, love operates as a normative force that promotes loyalty, harmony, and obedience while subtly reinforcing existing power relations. In this process, emotional regulation becomes a key pedagogical strategy through which desirable forms of citizenship are produced and sustained.  Furthermore, the study argues that love functions as a symbolic boundary within Thai basic education - defining who is recognized as a “good citizen” and who is positioned as the cultural or ideological “other.” By framing national belonging through affective alignment rather than critical engagement, the curriculum limits alternative interpretations of citizenship and constrains democratic imagination.  This article contributes to scholarship on curriculum studies, affect theory, and critical education by demonstrating how emotions operate not merely as personal experiences but as politically constructed tools that shape identity, governance, and social order within educational systems.