In search of a sociological explanation for the emotional turn

Ana Marta González

doi:10.7458/spp2017857606

Abstract

The overwhelming presence of the emotions both in science and contemporary social life begs for an explanation from the point of view of the same social theory. Even though the works of Hochschild, Scheff or Illouz contain indications that allow for a theoretical link between the contributions of the sociology of emotions and the theories of late modernity advanced by contemporary social theorists, this link has not yet been explicitly developed in the literature. The purpose of this article is to call attention on this link by highlighting the role of emotions as sites of social reflexivity.

Highlights

The overwhelming presence of the emotions both in science and contemporary social life begs for an explanation from the point of view of the same social theory
Very much along the same lines, and keeping in mind the immediacy we attribute to emotion in contrast to reason, it could be argued that the attention we give to the emotions bears witness to the fact that we have developed a scientific-experimentalist account of our own life stories: That is, we have deeply internalized the procedures of science, accepting only verified knowledge, “verification”, in biographical matters, is expected from emotional experience: in order to accept something as meaningful, we need an emotional experience to corroborate it
Nowadays we do not merely have, or long to have, emotional experiences; instead, we have assimilated a wide range of scientific knowledge about our emotions so that — as Eva Illouz has argued — we find ourselves developing meta-emotions, i.e., “emotions about emotions”: we employ them in an effort to develop a certain personality and improve our communication skills; they are a crucial element in every self-help book, as well as in every course on emotional management

Summary

Introduction

The overwhelming presence of the emotions both in science and contemporary social life begs for an explanation from the point of view of the same social theory. Given the rationalizing and individualizing impact of science on contemporary culture, current scientific interest in the emotions can be regarded as an instance of social reflexivity, whereby we are trying to correct previous self-conceptions, which were, in turn, partly derived of the scientific view of the world.

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