Since the 1970s, the study of emotions moved to the forefront of sociological analysis. This book brings the reader up to date on the theory and research that have proliferated in the analysis of human emotions. The first section of the book addresses the classification, the neurological underpinnings, and the effect of gender on emotions. The second reviews sociological theories of emotion. Section three covers theory and research on specific emotions: love, envy, empathy, anger, grief, etc. The final section shows how the study of emotions adds new insight into other subfields of sociology: the workplace, health, and more.

All social relations involve emotional responses, from the simplest face-to-face encounter through the mobilization of social movements to the commitments that individuals develop for culture and society. The social world is thus dependent upon the arousal of emotions, and equally significant conflict and change in societies is ultimately driven by emotional arousal. Thus, it is important to understand how human emotions influence, and are influenced by, the social world. This understanding takes us into the sociology of emotions that has emerged as a distinct area of inquiry over the last thirty years.

Unique in its approach, Invitation to the Sociology of Emotions treats neophytes as its primary audience, giving students a brief, but thorough, introduction to the sociology of emotions. Including research examples, exercises, and lists of further reading, this text explains as clearly as possible some of the most interesting theoretical concepts that animate sociological research on emotions.

The Political Sociology of Emotions articulates the political sociology of emotions as a sub-field of emotions sociology in relation to cognate disciplines and sub-disciplines. Far from reducing politics to affectivity, the political sociology of emotions is coterminous with political sociology itself plus the emotive angle added in the investigation of its traditional and more recent areas of research. The worldwide predominance of affective anti-politics (e.g., the securitization of immigration policies, reactionism, terrorism, competitive authoritarianism, nationalism and populism, etc.) makes the political sociology of emotions increasingly necessary in making the prospects of democracy and republicanism in the twenty-first century more intelligible. Through a weak constructionist theoretical perspective, the book shows the utility of this new sub-field by addressing two central themes: trauma and ressentiment. Trauma is considered as a key cultural-political phenomenon of our times, evoking both negative and positive emotions; ressentiment is a pertaining individual and collective political emotion allied to insecurities and moral injuries. In tandem, they constitute fundamental experiences of late modern times. The value of the political sociology of emotions is revealed in the analysis of civil wars, cultural traumas, the politics of pity, the suffering of distant others in the media, populism, and national identities on both sides of the Atlantic.

In this book leading sociologists of emotions present their research agendas for work that promises to shape the study of emotions well into the next decade. The essays represent the full range of ideas, issues, and directions in the field. From diverse theoretical positions — symbolic interactionist, social constructionist, feminist, positivist, linguistic, phenomenologist, Marxist, and evolutionist — the authors set forth their current understandings, as well as the directions of future work, with a discussion of the most significant problems in emotions research.

This major theoretical work takes existing work on the emotions in significantly new directions. It gives a comprehensive account of emotions, beginning with general sociological principles, moving over important theory construction of social formation and applying this to a detailed and unified 'grand' theory of human emotions. Presenting a unified view of the emotions in the social universe, the book explores the relationships between emotions, social structure, and culture. Turner hypotheses how social structure and culture affect emotional arousal in humans, and vice versa. This book is essential reading for undergraduate and postgraduate students researching sociology of emotions, social psychology, and contemporary social theory, and is also relevant for students and researchers working in the fields of psychology and cultural studies.

The development of a sociology of emotions is crucial to our understanding of social life as they hold the key to our understanding of social processes and sociological investigation. First published in 1997, Emotions in Social Life consolidates the sociology of emotions as a legitimate and viable field of enquiry. It provides a comprehensive assessment of the sociology of emotions using work from scholars of international stature, as well as newer writers in the field. It presents new empirical research in conjunction with innovative and challenging theoretical material, and will be essential reading for students of sociology, health psychology, anthropology and gender studies.