Emotions and Society aims to publish high-quality, original peer-reviewed articles which advance theoretical and empirical understanding of emotions in social life. It is associated with the European Sociological Association's (ESA) Research Network on Sociology of Emotions (RN11), but seeks submissions from a wide range of international authors writing in this area. Read more about Emotions and Society.
Frequency: March, July and November
Editors' Choice collection
Editors' Choice collection
Aims and scope
Abstract and Indexing
Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
Testimonials
Contact us
Emotions and Society aims to publish high-quality, original peer-reviewed articles which advance theoretical and empirical understanding of emotions in social life. It is associated with the European Sociological Association's (ESA) Research Network on Sociology of Emotions (RN11), but seeks submissions from a wide range of international authors writing in this area. The sociology of emotions has developed unique perspectives on emotions that attend to their social construction and the ways in which they are embedded in social structures and inhere in social processes. The Journal seeks to expand the largely unexhausted potential for developing innovative approaches not only to emotions per se, but through them to the social generally. All methodological approaches to studying emotions are welcome, but they should demonstrate rigour and be framed in ways that will be of interest to sociologically inclined scholars.
A key feature of the Journal is to develop both a uniquely sociological perspective on emotions, while also engaging in interdisciplinary exchanges. This interdisciplinarity emerges not only from the character of present scholarly debates on emotions, but from the diversity of disciplines represented in the ESA Research Network 11. We welcome submissions from neighbouring fields, especially cultural studies, history, philosophy and social psychology. Psychology of emotions is quite well represented in existing journals and papers will be considered only insofar as their focus is interactional rather than biological. The Journal seeks to publish articles based on original research into the social aspects of emotions and emotional life. We are also interested in contributions to theoretical debates in the area and relevant substantial review articles. Principally we are looking for theoretical or theoretically informed empirical papers that engage with key concepts and debates furthering knowledge about the role of emotions in social life. We prioritize standard academic articles but are also open to receiving other pieces, for example, commentaries or interviews on highly topical issues or book review essays.
Emotions and Society is abstracted and/or indexed in:
Our Equity, Diversity and Inclusion statement outlines the ways in which we seek to ensure that equity, diversity and inclusion are integral to all aspects of our publishing, and how we might encourage and drive positive change.
“As a sociologist researching emotions and emotional strategies for social justice and feminist resistance, I appreciate the intellectual space Emotions and Society provides for theoretical and empirical discussions.”
Ee Ling Sharon Quah, Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Wollongong in Australia
“Emotions and Society publishes high-quality research on emotions with a unique social perspective. It will be the reference journal for the new generation of social scientists of emotions.”
Eduardo Bericat, Professor of Sociology at the University of Seville, Spain
Editorial Assistant: Sian Carrington, emotionsandsociety.editorial@gmail.com
Editors in Chief: Mary Holmes, mary.holmes@ed.ac.uk and Åsa Wettergren, asa.wettergren@socav.gu.se
Bristol University Press: bup-journals@bristol.ac.uk
Read our instructions for authors for guidance on how to prepare your submissions. The instructions include the following:
What are we looking for?
How to submit an article
Editorial review process
Ethical guidelines
Copyright and permissions
Style
References
Open Access
Self-archiving and institutional repositories
English language editing service
How to maximise the impact of your article
Contact us
Visit our journal author toolkit for resources and advice to support you through the publication process and beyond.
All submissions should be made online at the Emotions and Society Editorial Manager website: https://www.editorialmanager.com/emsoc/default.aspx.
Editorial Manager
Manuscripts must be in Word or Rich Text Format, not pdf. New users should first create an account, specify their areas of interest and provide full contact details.
Preparing your anonymised manuscript
Your initial submission must consist of the following separate files:
For help submitting an article via Editorial Manager, please view our online tutorial.
Once a submission has been conditionally accepted, you will be invited to submit a final, non-anonymised version.
A cover page including:
The main manuscript including:
All submissions are first desk-reviewed by the Editors who will assess whether the manuscript fits the aims and scope as well as the quality standards of Emotions and Society. Papers that are selected to be sent out for review will be evaluated through double anonymous peer review by at least two referees. Emotions and Society aims to return referee reviews along with an initial decision within four weeks.
Please also read our Journals Editorial Policies.
At Bristol University Press we are committed to upholding the highest standards of review and publication ethics in our journals. Bristol University Press is a member of and subscribes to the principles of the Committee of Publication Ethics (COPE), and will take appropriate action in cases of possible misconduct in line with COPE guidance.
Find out more about our ethical guidelines.
Emotions and Society is published by Bristol University Press. Articles are considered for publication on the understanding that on acceptance the author(s) grant(s) Bristol University Press the exclusive right and licence to publish the article. Copyright remains with the author(s) or other original copyright owners and we will acknowledge this in the copyright line that appears on the published article.
Authors will be asked to sign a journal contributor agreement to this effect, which should be submitted online along with the final manuscript. All authors should agree to the agreement. For jointly authored articles the corresponding author may sign on behalf of co-authors provided that they have obtained the co-authors' consent. The journal contributor agreement can be downloaded here.
Where copyright is not owned by the author(s), the corresponding author is responsible for obtaining the consent of the copyright holder. This includes figures, tables and excerpts. Evidence of this permission should be provided to Bristol University Press. General information on rights and permissions can be found here.
To request permission to reproduce any part of articles published in the Emotions and Society, please email Bristol University Press: bup-info@bristol.ac.uk. For information on what is permissible use for different versions of your article please see our policy on self archiving and institutional repositories.
Download the Endnote output style for Policy Press and Bristol University Press journals.
Bristol University Press uses a custom version of the Harvard system of referencing:
Example of book reference:
Dorling, D. (2010) Injustice: Why social inequality persists, Bristol: Policy Press.
Example of journal reference:
Warin, P. (2012) 'Non-demand for Social Rights: A new challenge for social action in France', Journal of Poverty and Social Justice, 20(1): 41-53.
Example of chapter within edited / multi-authored publication:
Levitas, R. (2011) 'Utopia Calling: Eradicating child poverty in the United Kingdom and beyond', in A. Minujin and S. Nandy (eds), Global Child Poverty and Well-being: Measurement, concepts, policy and action, Bristol, Policy Press. pp. 449-73.
Example of website reference:
Womensaid (2016) What is domestic abuse? https://www.womensaid.org.uk/information-support/what-is-domestic-abuse/.
Mary Holmes, Editor in Chief, University of Edinburgh, UK
Åsa Wettergren, Editor in Chief, Gothenburg University, Sweden
Nathan Manning, Co-Editor, University of Adelaide, Australia
Maja Sawicka, Book Reviews Editor & Chair of Board, Warsaw University, Poland
Stina Bergman Blix, Uppsala University, Sweden
Julie Brownlie, University of Edinburgh, UK
Ian Burkitt, University of Bradford, UK
Jessica L. Collett, University of California, Los Angeles, USA
Nicholas Demertzis, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece
Jonathan Heaney, Queens University, Belfast, Northern Ireland
Quah Ee Ling, Western Sydney University, Australia
Adrian Scribano, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina
Lisa Slattery Walker, University of North Carolina, USA
Abstract submission deadline: 01 December 2023
Guest Editors: Nina Margies (Humboldt University of Berlin) and Elgen Sauerborn (Free University of Berlin)
Background to the call:
In recent years, the interplay between emotions and social class has received recurrent attention. Scholars from various disciplines have primarily investigated the impact of class structures and inequalities on individual and collective feelings and emotions. Research addressing questions such as how class feels and how affects shape class relations (Emery, Powell & Crookes 2023; Skeggs 2012) as well as the effect of social mobility and class shifts on emotional states (Born 2023; Friedman 2016; Jaquet 2018), enhance our comprehension of economic and social disparities and their association with psychological states and mental health.
Social, economic and ecological crises such as climate change or the current inflation intensify social inequalities, which in turn leads to a shift in class boundaries and a reconfiguration of social hierarchies. Many groups are pushed into poverty or the lower class, who never perceived themselves as being at risk of poverty. At the same time, the ultra-wealthy exacerbate existing crises (Chancel 2022; Neckel 2023), and affluent individuals seek to distinguish themselves from ostentatious wealth through new cultural and habitus practices (Friedman & Reeves 2020; Prieur & Savage 2013; Sherman 2018). This leads to new forms of distinction within both the rich and the poor, which involve emotional practices as well as affective meanings and relations. Recognizing the critical importance of emotions and affects in creating social distinction, questions arise about how they operate as tools for forming hierarchies and class boundaries within emerging rearrangements of established classes. Moreover, it prompts an exploration of how emotions or affects are used to either maintain an individual's class identity or, alternatively, to separate oneself from it.
In this special issue, our aim is to redirect the emphasis away from individual emotional states. Instead, we welcome contributions that scrutinize the practical, organizing, and segregating functions of emotions, including collective emotions and affects. The special issue aims to contribute to the exploration of how emotions and affective relations serve to separate or connect social classes and stratification. We are particularly interested in understanding how social closure and opening processes relate to emotions and the emotional or affective practices, techniques, and strategies employed to preserve or challenge class boundaries and orders.
We are interested in predominantly empirical but also theoretical contributions that explore, among other things, the following questions:
Information for contributors
If you are interested in this call, please submit your abstract (200-300 words) no later than 01 Dec 2023 to the Guest Editors Nina Margies (nina.margies@sowi.hu-berlin.de) and Elgen Sauerborn (elgen.sauerborn@fu-berlin.de).
We will inform authors by mid-January whether we would like them to submit a full paper. Full papers will be due for submission by 15 June 2024 and will undergo the journal’s standard double-anonymous peer review process.
Please see our instructions for authors for guidance on preparing your submission.
Timeline
Literature
Born, A.M. (2023) ‘The price of the ticket revised: Family members’ experiences of upward social mobility’, The Sociological Review, 0(0)
Chancel, L. (2022) ‘Global carbon inequality over 1990–2019’, Nature Sustainability, 5: 931–938.
Emery, J., Powell, R. & Crookes, L. (2023) ‘Class, affect, margins’, The Sociological Review, 71(2): 283–295.
Friedman, S. & Reeves, A. (2020) ‘From Aristocratic to Ordinary: Shifting Modes of Elite Distinction’, American Sociological Review, 85(2):. 323–350.
Neckel, S. (2023) Zerstörerischer Reichtum. Wie eine globale Verschmutzer-Elite das Klima ruiniert‘, Blätter für deutsche und internationale Politik, 68(4): 47-56.
Prieur, A. &Savage, M. (2013) ‘Emerging Forms of Cultural Capital’, European Societies, 15(2): 246–267.
Sherman, R. (2018) ‘‘A very expensive ordinary life’: consumption, symbolic boundaries and moral legitimacy among New York elites’, Socio-Economic Review, 16(2): 411–433.
Skeggs, B. (2012) ‘Feeling Class: Affect and Culture in the Making of Class Relations’, in: G. Ritzer (ed.), The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Sociology, Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 269–286.
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2022 Impact Factor 1.3 (2 yr), 1.3 (5 yr)
2022 Journal Citation Index: 0.64
Ranking: 116/214 in Sociology
2022 Scopus CiteScore: 2.1.
Ranking: 131/1203 in Cultural Studies - 89th percentile