Postgraduate Course: Sociology of Emotions (PGSP11367)
Course Outline
| School | School of Social and Political Science |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | Feelings are things we usually think of as 'natural', but sociologists are interested in to what extent emotions are socially constructed and/or socially constituting. We examine why sociologists have largely neglected emotions and what a sociological approach can bring to our understanding of them. This will enable us to explore how the sociology of emotions can challenge some of sociology's key premises and ways of thinking and to critically analyse debates about the changing role of emotions in social life. The topic examines how modernity has made people feel about each other and their world and how those feelings have in turn shaped that world.
Students who have taken the course will have an understanding of differing theoretical explanations of emotions, and be able to critically compare the importance and operation of emotions in different social settings. They should be able to analyse how are subject to social processes, and identify and describe major debates within the study of emotions. |
| Course description |
Week
1. How do you feel? Defining emotions
2. Feeling modernity. Marx, Weber and Durkheim on emotions
3. How to blow your nose: Civilising emotions?
4. Why do people cry at weddings?
5. Are women more emotional? Engendering emotions
6. Feeling tarty: Distaste and the reproduction of class
7. Wretchedness, anger and happiness: Resisting racism
8. Passionate politics: Social movements, mainstream politics and emotions
9. (Dis)abling emotions: Feeling different
10. Global emotions: 'Melancholic migrants', disappointed dreams and excitement
11. Revision
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- On completing the course students will have a critical understanding of the principal theories, concepts and principles in the field of the sociology of emotions
- At the end of the course students should be able to demonstrate an ability to apply their knowledge and skills to understanding practical examples of how emotions are expressed in different social and cultural contexts
- Completing the course will enable students to critically review and evaluate different sociological approaches to emotions, and offer some original insight into the debates
- In taking this course students will gain the ability to clearly communicate, orally and in written form, their ideas relating to the sociology of emotions
- Students completing the course will acquire team-work skills in organizing and leading tutorial discussion with a group of peers
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Reading List
General background reading is below and there will be essential and further reading for each week, an indicative list follows. All essential reading is available in electronic form via the library.
Some general reading
Barbalet, J. (ed) (2002) Emotions and Sociology. Oxford: Blackwell.
Barbalet, J. (2001) Emotion, Social Theory, and Social Structure : A Macrosociological Approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Bendelow, G. and Williams, S. J. (eds) (1998) Emotions in Social Life: Critical Themes and Contemporary Issues. London: Routledge.
Elias, N (2000) The Civilizing Process: Sociogenetic and Psychogenetic Investigations. Oxford: Blackwell.
Hochschild, A.R. (1983) The Managed Heart: Commercialization of human feeling. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Lupton, D. (1998) The Emotional Self: A sociocultural exploration. London: Sage
Turner, J.H. and Stets, J.E. (2005) The Sociology of Emotions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Turner, J.H. and Stets, J.E. (eds) (2006) Handbook of the Sociology of Emotions. New York: Springer.
Wouters, C. (2007) Informalization: Manners and emotions since 1890, Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Week 1: How do you feel? Defining emotions
Essential reading:
Kemper, T. D. (1981) 'Social Constructionist and Positivist Approaches to the Sociology of Emotions' American Journal of Sociology 87(2): 336-362.
Hochschild, A. (1983) 'Comment on Kemper's "Social Constructionist and Positivist Approaches to the Sociology of Emotions"' American Journal of Sociology 89(2): 432-434.
Further reading:
Barbalet, J. (2001) 'Emotion in social life and social theory' in Emotion, Social Theory, and Social Structure : A Macrosociological Approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Burkitt, I. (1997) 'Social Relationships and Emotions', Sociology 31(1): 37-55.
Burkitt, I. (2012) 'Emotional Reflexivity: Feeling, Emotion and Imagination in Reflexive Dialogues' Sociology 46(3): 458-72.
Damasio, A. (1995) Descartes¿ Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain. London: Picador.
Hochschild, A (1998) 'The sociology of emotion as a way of seeing' in Bendelow, G. and Williams, S. (eds) Emotions in Social Life: Critical themes and contemporary issues. London: Routledge.
Turner, J.H. and Stets. J.E. (2005) 'Conceptualizing Emotions Sociologically' in The Sociology of Emotions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Week 2: Feeling modernity. Marx, Weber and Durkheim on emotions
Essential reading:
Engels, F (1845/1969) 'Results' The Condition of the Working Class in England. London: Panther. http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1845/condition-working-class/
Further reading:
Durkheim, E (1897/2002) 'The social element of suicide' Suicide: A Study in Sociology. London: Routledge. Other editions also fine.
Martineau, H (1837) 'Apathy in Citizenship' in Society in America London: Saunders and Otley. Available as a free ebook via google.
Marx, K (1844/1959) 'Estranged Labour' Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1844/manuscripts/preface.htm
Simmel, G (1908/1950) 'The Metropolis and Mental Life' adapted by D. Weinstein from Kurt Wolff (Trans.) The Sociology of Georg Simmel. New York: Free Press, 1950, pp.409-424. See also http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/content/BPL_Images/Content_store/Sample_chapter/0631225137/Bridge.pdf
Sydie, R. A. (1987) Natural Women, Cultured Men: A Feminist Perspective on Sociological Theory. Milton Keynes : Open University Press.
Weber, M (1915/1967) 'Religious Rejections of the World and Their Directions: The Erotic Sphere' pp 343-50 in H. H. Gerth and C. W. Mills (eds) From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Week 3: How to blow your nose: Civilising emotions?
Essential reading:
Elias, N (2000/1939) 'On Blowing One's Nose' pp121-9 in The Civilizing Process: Sociogenetic and Psychogenetic Investigations. Oxford: Blackwell.
Further reading:
Elias, N (1978-82) 'The social constraint towards self-constraint' in The Civilizing Process: Sociogenetic and Psychogenetic Investigations. Oxford: Blackwell.
Elias, N. (1987) Involvement and Detachment. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Foucault, M (1976) 'The repressive hypothesis' in The History of Sexuality Volume 1: An Introduction. Any edition is fine.
Mennell, S (1991) 'On the Civilizing of Appetite' in Featherstone, M, Hepworth, M and Turner, B (eds) The Body: Social Process and Cultural Theory. London: Sage.
Williams, S. and Bendelow, G. (1998) 'The emotionally 'expressive' body' in The Lived Body: Sociological Themes, Embodied Issues. London: Routledge. pp136-144.
Wouters, C. (2007) Informalization: Manners and emotions since 1890, Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Week 4: Why do people cry at weddings?
Essential reading:
Hochschild, A (1983) 'Feeling rules' in The Managed Heart: Commercialization of human feeling. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Further reading:
Fields et al. (2006) 'Symbolic Interactionism, Inequality and Emotions' Turner, J.H. and Stets, J.E. (eds) (2006) Handbook of the Sociology of Emotions. New York: Springer.
Goffman, E (1963) Behavior in public places: notes on the social organization of gatherings. New York: Free Press of Glencoe.
Turner, J.H. and Stets. J.E. (2005) 'Conceptualizing Emotions Sociologically' in The Sociology of Emotions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Wouters, C (1989) 'The Sociology of Emotions and Flight Attendants: Hochschild's Managed Heart',Theory, Culture & Society 6(1): 95-123
Week 5: Are women more emotional? Engendering emotions
Essential reading:
Shields et al(2006) 'Gender and Emotion' in Turner, J.H. and Stets, J.E. (eds) (2006) Handbook of the Sociology of Emotions. New York: Springer.Ebook.
Further reading:
Duncombe, J. and Marsden, D. (1993) 'Love and Intimacy: The Gender Division of Emotion and Emotion Work, A Neglected Aspect of Sociological Discussion of Heterosexual Relationships' Sociology 27 (2): 221-241.
Duncombe, J. and Marsden, D. (1995) ''Workaholics' and 'Whingeing Women': Theorising Intimacy and Emotion Work - the Last Frontier of Gender Inequality?'Sociological Review 43(1): 150-69.
Hochschild, A.R. (1983) 'Gender, Status and Feeling' in The Managed Heart: Commercialization of human feeling. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Jaggar, A. M. (1989). 'Love and Knowledge: Emotion in Feminist Epistemology' Inquiry 32(2): 151-176.
Jackson, S. (1993) 'Even Sociologists Fall in Love: An exploration in the sociology of emotion' Sociology 27(2): 201-220.
Lupton, D (1998) 'The 'Emotional Woman' and the 'Unemotional Man' in The Emotional Self. London: Sage.
Monaghan, L. and Robertson, S. (2012) 'Embodied Heterosexual Masculinities, Part 1: Confluent Intimacies, Emotions and Health' Sociology Compass 6(2): 134-150.
Week 6: Feeling tarty: Distaste and the reproduction of class
Essential reading:
Skeggs, B. (2009) 'The moral economy of person production: the class relations of self-performance on 'reality' television' Sociological Review 57(4): 626-644.
Further reading:
Barbalet, J. (2001) 'Class and resentment' in Emotion, Social Theory, and Social Structure: A Macrosociological Approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Bourdieu, P. (1984) Distinction: A social critique of the judgement of taste. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Storr, M (2002) 'Classy Lingerie' Feminist Review 71(1): 18-36.
Reay, D. (2005) 'Gendering Bourdieu's concepts of capitals? Emotional capital, women and social class' Sociological Review 52, Issue supplement s2: 57-75 .
Skeggs, B (1997)Formations of class and gender: becoming respectable. London: Sage.
Week 7: Wretchedness, anger and happiness: Resisting racism
Essential reading:
Lorde, A. (1981) 'The uses of anger' Women's Studies Quarterly 25(1/2): 278-85.
Further reading:
Ahmed, S. (2004) The Cultural Politics of Emotion. New York: Routledge.
Ahmed, S. (2010) The Promise of Happiness. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Brown, W. (1995) States of Injury: Power and Freedom in Late Modernity. Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press.
Fanon, F. (1965) The Wretched of the Earth. London: Penguin. Any edition.
Nietzsche, Friedrich (1910) The Genealogy of Morals. H.B. Samuel trans. O. Levy (ed.). The Complete Works of Friedrich Nietzsche, Vol. 13. Edinburgh: T.N. Foulis.
Young, I. (1990) Justice and the Politics of Difference. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Week 8: Passionate politics: Social movements, mainstream politics and emotions
Essential reading:
Wettergren, Å. (2009) 'Fun and laughter: culture jamming and the emotional regime of late capitalism' Social Movement Studies 8(1): 1-15.
Further reading:
Flam, H. (2004) 'Anger in Repressive Regimes: A Footnote to Domination and the Arts of Resistance by James Scott' European Journal of Social Theory 7(2): 171-188.
Goodwin, J., Jasper, J. and Polletta, F. (eds) (2001) Passionate Politics: Emotions and Social Movements Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Groves, J M (1995) 'Learning to feel: the neglected sociology of social movements' Sociological Review 43(3): 435-61.
Hay, C. (2007) Why We Hate Politics. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Jasper, J. (1998) 'The emotions of protest: Affective and reactive emotions in and around social movements' Sociological Forum 13(3)
Ost, D. (2004) 'Politics as the Mobilization of Anger: Emotions in Movements and in Power' European Journal of Social Theory 7(2): 229-244.
Week 9: (Dis)abling emotions: Feeling different
Essential reading:
Reeve, D. (2002) 'Negotiating psycho-emotional dimensions of disability and their influence on identity constructions' Disability & Society17(5):493-508.
Further reading:
Bendelow, G. (1993) 'Pain perceptions, emotions and gender' Sociology of Health & Illness 15(3): 273¿294,
Goffman, E (1968) Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Hughes, B. (2009) 'Wounded/monstrous/abject: a critique of the disabled body in the sociological imaginary' Disability & Society 24(4): 399-410.
Sunderland, N., Catalano, T. and Kendall, E. (2009) 'Missing dicourses: concepts of joy and happinesss in disability' Disability & Society 24(6): 703-14.
Week 10: Global emotions: 'Melancholic migrants', disappointed dreams & excitement
Essential reading:
Svaseka, M. and Skrbis, Z. (2007) 'Passions and powers: emotions and globalisation' Identities 14(4): 367-83.
Further reading:
Ahmed, S. (2010) 'Melancholic migrants' The Promise of Happiness. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Hochschild, A. R. (2003). 'Love and Gold' in The commercialization of intimate life: Notes from home and work. Berkely, CA.: University of California Press.
Hochschild, A.R. and Ehrenreich, B. (Eds) (2003)Global Woman: Nannies, Maids, and Sex Workers in the New Economy. London: Granta.
O¿Reilly, K. (2007) 'Intra-European Migration and the Mobility - Enclosure Dialectic' Sociology 41(2): 277-293. |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Mary Holmes
Tel: (0131 6)51 3140
Email: |
Course secretary | Ms Nicole Develing-Bogdan
Tel: (0131 6)51 5067
Email: |
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