The recent publication of two new introductions to the history of emotion, both valuable additions to an existing list, calls attention to the excitement of this growing subfield, as well, presumably, as the need for further guidance in what remains unfamiliar terrain for many scholars, historians and non-historians alike. Discussions of the need for ambitious interdisciplinary combinations, including the challenging interface with neuroscience, win appropriate attention. The desirability of expanding geographical range, to get beyond what remains a
Introduction Scholars from several disciplines have come to argue that emotions in social life are complex social phenomena, warranting the adoption of multiple paradigmatic assumptions in the application of diverse analytic methods ( Fineman, 2004 ; Bericat, 2016 ; Essary, 2017 ). For instance, Scheff (1997) and Denzin (2010) have critiqued typical sociological research that relies on a single method and single set of epistemological assumptions, highlighting the limitations associated with methodological fragmentation. In the learning sciences, Tobin
Introduction Emotions, through their effects on thoughts and language, are major tools for explaining social life. Indeed, emotions are critical for the social explanation of social subjects’ thinking and speaking, because emotions motivate and structure normative thinking and speeches and can contribute to the foundation of institutional facts. Emotions will be described as being intimately related to values and norms; they are the grounds that motivate social subjects to articulate their reasoning and speech acts with respect to the values and norms
There is a rich seam of literature in social science and philosophy on alienation and emotion, but this tends towards the view that alienation creates emotional numbness or a condition in which we fail to connect with our emotions properly, thus experiencing inauthentic emotion. In key work in the social sciences this has been seen as the result of the commercialisation of emotion in the workplace ( Hochschild, 1983 ; Brewer, 2011 ), and in philosophy as the outcome of general processes of emotional self-alienation ( Szanto, 2017 ). I want to take a different
We usually speak of crisis in numbers: decline in purchasing power, rise in unemployment rates or decreasing levels of life satisfaction. But what do people feel when their supposed securities for their futures crumble?
The stories of the young adults after the 2008 economic crisis in Spain provide us with answers. This book shows how their loss of future prospects led to feelings of uncertainty, anxiety, frustration and resentment, and how they dealt with these emotions.
Combining the sociology of emotions with Bourdieu's practice theory, Emotions in Crisis analyses the impact of structural changes in society on individual and collective emotions. It shows that adapting to such changes involves 'emotion work' and highlights the different forms this work can take.
In this chapter I introduce the theoretical framework of this book which combines different strands of sociological thinking to explore the link between emotions, structural conditions and individual agency. My understanding of emotions focuses on their social aspects. I therefore see them as emerging between people and located in social relationships, but at the same time experienced and processed in people (physiologically, cognitively and emotionally) ( Burkitt, 2014 ). Emotions are constitutive of social life; they structure and are structured by the
Introduction Enhancing social skills among citizens who are considered at risk is one of the ways in which a welfare state handles marginalised groups ( Prieur et al, 2020 ). Universalised programmes represent a common way of strengthening the social capabilities of groups deemed in need of such skills (for example, Pettersvold and Østrem, 2019 ). In this article, we show that emotions perform a political role in such programmes, as they provide participants with signals as to the social practices that should be followed in their specific context. To
As nations reel from the effects of poverty, inequality, climate change and the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, it feels as though the world has entered a period characterized by pessimism, cynicism and anxiety.
This edited collection challenges individualized understandings of emotion, revealing how they relate to cultural, economic and political realities in difficult times.
Combining numerous empirical studies and theoretical developments from around the world, the diverse contributors explore how dystopian visions of the future influence, and are influenced by, the emotions of an anxious and precarious present.
This is an original investigation into the changing landscape of emotion in dark and uncertain times.
, it looks into people’s practices of mobile intimacy with respect to digitally mediated communication in fostering family and affective ties. The article then considers how families can be experienced as unique in ways that people reflexively perform emotions. Finally, it examines how practices of family intersect with caring (especially for the absent partner’s parents) and gender roles. This article concludes by highlighting how families, by focusing on the everyday ‘doing’, can be experienced and constructed differently, while also being informed by the cultural
measures. It becomes painfully obvious that human action, collective as well as the decisive actions of powerful individuals, is not autonomous but embedded and contextually dependent. To scholars of emotion, it is clear that emotions fuel action, or rather, that peoples’ beliefs are emotionally anchored ( Hochschild, 1990 ). Emotions can explain the difference between just knowing something, and acting on the knowledge (see for example, Norgaard, 2006 ; Roeser, 2012 ). So, what are the emotions of the pandemic? Apparently, and unlike the climate crisis, and its
