Emotions, Everyday Life and Sociology

261 Pages·2018·2.264 MB·English

by  Jacobsen, Michael Hviid(Editor)

Emotions, Everyday Life and Sociology
This volume explores the emotions that are intricately woven into the texture
of everyday life and experience. A contribution to the literature on the
sociology of emotions, it focuses on the role of emotions as being integral to
daily life, broadening our understanding by examining both ‘core’ emotions
and those that are often overlooked or omitted from more conventional
studies. Bringing together theoretical and empirical studies from scholars
across a range of subjects, including sociology, psychology, cultural studies,
history,politicsandcognitivescience,thisinternationalcollectioncentreson
the ‘everyday-ness’ of emotional experience.
Michael Hviid Jacobsen is Professor of Sociology in the Department of
Sociology and Social Work, Aalborg University, Denmark. His research is
concernedwith topics such as crime, utopia, ethics, death and dying, palliative
care, qualitative methods and social theory. His recent publications include
BeyondBauman,PostmortalSociety,TheInteractionistImaginationandLiquid
Criminology.
Classical and Contemporary Social Theory
Classical and Contemporary Social Theory publishes rigorous scholarly work
that re-discovers the relevance of social theory for contemporary times,
demonstrating the enduring importance of theory for modern social issues.
The series covers social theory in abroad sense, inviting contributions on both
‘classical’ and modern theory, thus encompassing sociology, without being
confined toa singlediscipline. Assuch, work fromacross the socialsciences is
welcome, provided that volumes address the social context of particular issues,
subjects, or figures and offer new understandings of social reality and the con-
tribution of atheorist or school to our understanding ofit.
The series considers significant new appraisals of established thinkers or
schools, comparative works or contributions that discuss a particular social
issueorphenomenoninrelationtotheworkofspecifictheoristsortheoretical
approaches. Contributions are welcome that assess broad strands of thought
within certain schools or across the workof a numberof thinkers, but always
with an eye toward contributing to contemporary understandings of social
issues and contexts.
Series Editor
Stjepan G. Mestrovic, Texas A&M University, USA
Titles in this series
Lost in Perfection
Impacts of Optimisation on Culture and Psyche
Edited by Vera King, Benigna Gerisch and Hartmut Rosa
Critical Theory and the Classical World
Martyn Hudson
Emotions, Everyday Life and Sociology
Edited by Michael Hviid Jacobsen
For more information about this series, please visit: https://www.routledge.
com/sociology/series/ASHSER1383
Emotions, Everyday Life and
Sociology
Edited by
Michael Hviid Jacobsen
Firstpublished2019
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Names:Jacobsen,MichaelHviid,1971-editor.
Title:Emotions,everydaylifeandsociology/editedbyMichael
HviidJacobsen.
Description:1Edition.|NewYork:Routledge,2018.|Series:Classicaland
contemporarysocialtheory|Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
Identifiers:LCCN2018009997|ISBN9781138633339(hbk)|ISBN
9781315207728(ebk)
Subjects:LCSH:Socialsciences–Philosophy.|Emotions.
Classification:LCCH61.E4562018|DDC302–dc23
LCrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2018009997
ISBN:978-1-138-63333-9(hbk)
ISBN:978-1-315-20772-8(ebk)
TypesetinTimesNewRoman
byTaylor&FrancisBooks
Contents
Foreword and acknowledgements vii
List of contributors viii
Introduction: Emotions, Emotions, Everywhere Emotions! 1
MICHAELHVIIDJACOBSEN
1 Trust: What is it andwhy do we need it? 13
PAULR.WARD
2 Loyalty: The emotion of future expectation, felt now, based on
the past 27
JAMESM.CONNOR
3 Dignity:Anexplorationofdignity’sroleandmeaningindailylife 42
BARBARAA.MISZTAL
4 Compassion: Conflicted social feeling and the calling to care 56
IAINWILKINSON
5 Courage: It’s not all about overcoming fear 71
AMIRB.MARVASTI
6 Excitement: Risk and authentic emotion 88
STEPHENLYNG
7 Embarrassment: Experiencing awkward self-awareness in
everyday life 104
MICHAELHVIIDJACOBSENANDSØRENKRISTIANSEN
8 Shyness: Self-consciously perceived relative social incompetence 126
SUSIESCOTT
9 Envy: Hostility towards superiors 142
GORDONCLANTON
vi Contents
10 Guilt: What’s so good about feeling bad about yourself? 157
VESSELAMISHEVA
11 Anger: An emotion of intent and of desire for change in
relationships 176
KEITHOATLEYANDJENNIFERM.JENKINS
12 Grief: The painfulness of permanent human absence 191
ANDERSPETERSENANDMICHAELHVIIDJACOBSEN
13 Boredom: Emptiness in the modern world 209
PATRICKGAMSBY
14 Laziness: From medieval sin to late modern social pathology 225
MICHAELHVIIDJACOBSEN
Index 243
Foreword and acknowledgements
Itissometimessaid–andafamoussong-lineevenstates–that‘loveisallaround’.
Love,however,isnottheonlyemotionpermeatinghumanlife(ifthiswasindeed
thecase,thentheworldwouldprobablybeamuchbetterplacetolivethanitcur-
rentlyis)–allotheremotionsarealsoallaround:anger,fear,trust,loyalty,envy,
jealousy, cynicism, sadness, joy, misery, empathy, laziness, boredom, anger,
depression,happiness,embarrassment,shame,guilt,desire,excitement,pride,and
soon.Thelistofemotionsistoolongeventoattempttoexhausthere.Thistestifies
tothefactthathumanlife–andwithitsociallifeandeverydaylife–issaturated
withemotions.Thisbookisasociologicaltributetosomeoftheseemotions.
Weliveinemotionaltimes,andeventhoughsomeclaimthattheseareinfact
‘post-emotional times’ (just as they are apparently also ‘post-factual times’),
emotionsinanalmostunprecedentedmannerseemtocapturethepublicimagi-
nationnotonlyinpoliticsandeverydaylife,butalsoinacademia.Today,torrents
ofliteraturedealingwith,dissecting,describingandanalysingemotionsarebeing
publishedwithinvarious scientific disciplines and sub-fields, whereas half a cen-
turyagohardlyanyonewroteaboutorresearchedemotionsinanydetail.Wenow
have the ‘sociology of emotions’, the ‘psychology of emotions’, the ‘social psy-
chology of emotions’, the ‘anthropology of emotions’ and the ‘history of emo-
tions’, just to mention a few of the areas having paid particular attention to
studying emotions. This goes to show that from previously being shunned or
practicedprimarilyontheoutskirtsofthesocialsciences,thestudyofemotionsis
nowembracedasatopicworthyofacademicattention(eitherinitsownrightoras
anintegralpartofotherareasofresearch)evenbyhigh-profileresearchers.
In my experience, one of the most important yet nevertheless often dis-
regarded emotions in everyday life is thankfulness or gratitude. I would
therefore like to extend mygratitude to thebook’s manycontributors, who so
willingly have shared their research-based knowledge on different emotions. I
would also like to take this opportunity, as always, to thank my two ‘partners
in crime’, Alice Salt and Neil Jordan at Routledge, for a professional colla-
boration on this volume. It has once again been apleasureworking withyou.
Aalborg University, Winter 2017/2018
Michael Hviid Jacobsen
Contributors
Gordon Clanton has taught Sociology at San Diego State University, United
States,since1975.Theauthor/editorofthebookJealousy(1977/1998),heisa
pioneerinthe sociological studyofemotions and a founding memberofthe
Emotions Section of the American Sociological Association. Other research
interestsincludethesociologyofreligionandthesociologyofknowledge.
James M. Connor holds a PhD and works at the University of New South
Wales, Canberra, Australia. He specialises in emotions, organisational
culture and behaviour. He has been funded by WADA to research doping
and governance in sport and the Australian Research Council to investi-
gate cultures of abuse in the military.
Patrick Gamsby is the Scholarly Communications Librarian at Memorial
University of Newfoundland, Canada. He received his doctorate from
Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario, Canadawith a dissertation on
Henri Lefebvre. His research interests include critical theory, continental
philosophy, the history of ideas, environmental thinking, everyday life and
scholarly communication.
Michael Hviid Jacobsen is Professor of Sociology at Aalborg University,
Denmark. He has published extensivelyon topics such as death and dying,
palliative care, emotions, utopia, critique, deviance, interactionism, ethics,
criminology, qualitative research and social theory.
Jennifer M. Jenkins is the Atkinson Chair of Early Child Development and
Education attheUniversityof Toronto,Canada.She researchestherole of
family processes in children’s understanding of other minds and their
mental health.
SørenKristiansenisProfessorofSociologyandAssociateDeanattheFacultyof
the Social Sciences at Aalborg University, Denmark. His current research
projectsfocusongamblingwithaspecialfocusononlinesimulatedgambling
and the relationships between gambling behaviour and the role of social
contexts. He has published widely on a range of issues, including deviance,
researchmethods,researchethics,socialproblemsandsocialpolicy.
List of contributors ix
Stephen Lyng is a Professor of Sociology at Carthage College, United States.
His major areas of interest are the sociologyof risk, sociologyof the body
and sociological theory. He is the author of three books and numerous
articles on awide range of issues in these areas of study.
Amir B. Marvasti is Associate Professor of Sociology at Penn State Uni-
versity, Altoona, United States. His research focuses on the social con-
struction and management of identities in everyday life. He also has an
active publication record on the pedagogy of qualitative research.
VesselaMishevaisProfessorofSociologyatUppsalaUniversity,Sweden.She
has published extensively on macrosociological systems theory and the
sociology of self-conscious emotions, particularly shame and guilt, the
sociology of knowledge, models of scientific development, the emergence
of sociology and the theory and tradition of classical symbolic
interactionism.
Barbara A. Misztal is Emeritus Professor of Sociology, at the School of
Media, Communication and Sociology, University of Leicester, United
Kingdom. She has published on the issues of trust, memory, informality,
vulnerability, multiple normalities, forgiveness and on the problems of
political changes, public intellectuals, democracy and solidarity.
Keith Oatley is Emeritus Professor of Cognitive Psychology at the University
of Toronto, Canada. His main research has been on emotions, and on the
effects of reading andwriting fiction.
Anders Petersen is Associate Professor of Sociology at Aalborg University,
Denmark.Hehaspublishedextensivelyontopicssuchasdiagnosticculture,
socialpathologies,socialcritique,qualitativeresearchandsocialtheory.
Susie Scott is Professor of Sociology the University of Sussex, United King-
dom. She specialises in symbolic interactionism and dramaturgical theory
applied to aspects of self-identity and everyday life. She has published on
shyness,totalinstitutions,mentaldisorder,performance art,swimmingand
has created the sociology of nothing.
Paul R. Ward is Professor of Public Health at Flinders University, Australia.
He has published extensively on topics such as trust, risk, equity, ethics,
childhood vaccinations, food systems, cancer screening, lay expertise, HIV
prevention, qualitative research and social theory.
Iain Wilkinson is Professor of Sociology at the University of Kent, United
Kingdom. He has published extensively on topics such as social suffering,
modern humanitarianism, the cultural politics of compassion, social care,
risk, anxiety and social theory.