Emotions in social life: critical themes and contemporary issues

The development of a sociology of emotions is crucial to our understanding of social life. Emotions are 'social things', they are controlled and managed in our everyday lives and transcend the divides between mind and body, nature and culture, structure and action. In this way, they hold a crucial key to our understanding of social processes and can push forward the boundaries of sociological investigation. Throughout Western social thought emotions are seen to be the very antithesis of the detached scientific mind and its quest for 'objectivity'. However, as the course of human history has testified, crucial implications stem from the separation of reason and feeling. Accordingly, emotions have a fundamental import for all pertinent sociological themes and issues, in particular, social action and social identity, gender, sexuality and intimacy, the embodiment of emotions across the lifecourse (from childhood to old age), health and illness, and the social organisation of emotions in the workplace. Unique and timely, Emotions in Social Life acts to consolidate the sociology of emotions as a legitimate and viable field of enquiry. It provides a comprehensive 'state of the art' assessment of the sociology of emotions drawing upon 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 as well as gender studies.