eminism & sychology F P Special Issue Editorial: Feminist Politics of Shame A feminist politics of shame: Shame and its contested possibilities Tamara Shefer University of the Western Cape, South Africa Sally R Munt University of Sussex, UK Abstract This editorial piece introduces a special issue on the feminist politics of shame. It locates the special issue in the larger framework of scholarship on feminist approaches to shame and specifically feminist psychological emphases, and contextualises the fore- grounding of the productive possibilities of shame for feminist social justice projects. The introductory piece overviews the contributions to the special issue through a thematic lens. Keywords shame, feminist politics, gender, productive possibilities, stigma This special issue of Feminism & Psychology aims to contribute to a growing body of literature on the politics of shame (see also Fischer, 2018). The renewed engage- ment with a feminist politics of shame is enhanced by ‘‘the affective turn’’ and by new materialist and post-humanist thinking that challenges the ongoing erasure of affect, emotion, and embodiment which remains endemic to much of western schol- arship. While feminist psychologists have had a long interest in shame, there has been less engagement with a larger politics of shame, particularly in considering shame and its productive possibilities, as foregrounded by this contribution. Shame and shaming processes are personal and political, constituting powerful material and discursive performances of the long-standing and still salient Feminism & Psychology 2019, Vol. 29(2) 145–156 ! The Author(s) 2019 Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions DOI: 10.1177/0959353519839755 journals.sagepub.com/home/fap Corresponding author: Tamara Shefer, Department of Women’s and Gender Studies, Faculty of Arts, University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Arica. Email: tshefer@uwc.ac.za