1st Edition

Emotions and Social Change Historical and Sociological Perspectives

Edited By David Lemmings, Ann Brooks Copyright 2014
    296 Pages 3 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    296 Pages 3 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    This edited collection takes a critical perspective on Norbert Elias’s theory of the "civilizing process," through historical essays and contemporary analysis from sociologists and cultural theorists. It focuses on changes in emotional regimes or styles and considers the intersection of emotions and social change, historically and contemporaneously. The book is set in the context of increasing interest among humanities and social science scholars in reconsidering the significance of emotion and affect in society, and the development of empirical research and theorizing around these subjects. Some have labeled this interest as an "affective turn" or a "turn to affect," which suggests a profound and wide-ranging reshaping of disciplines. Building upon complex theoretical models of emotions and social change, the chapters exemplify this shift in analysis of emotions and affect, and suggest different approaches to investigation which may help to shape the direction of sociological and historical thinking and research.

    Introduction  1. The Emotional Turn in the Humanities and Social Sciences  David Lemmings and Ann Brooks  2. Norbert Elias and Emotions in History  Robert van Krieken  3. "The Affective Turn" in the Social Sciences and the Gendered Nature of Emotions: Theorizing Emotions in the Social Sciences from 1800 to the Present  Ann Brooks  Part 1: Identifying Emotional Communities  4. Searching for Emotional Communities in Late Medieval England  Melissa Raine  5. The Emotional Economies of Protestant Missions to Aboriginal People in Nineteenth-Century Australia  Claire McLisky  6. Mediated Public Emotion: Collective Grief and Australian Natural Disasters  Michelle Duffy and Susan Yell  Part 2: Emotions and Enlightened Empires: Histories of Contested Emotions  7. Adam Ferguson’s Sociology of Emotion  Lisa Hill  8. The Discontents of the Civilizing Process: "Beauty & Booty" and the Problem of Colonial Affect in the American War of 1812  Nicole Eustace  9. Politics and Changing Views of Jealousy in the Antebellum US  Michael E. Woods  Part 3: Emotions and the Happy Life: The Modern Politics of Emotions  10. Norbert Elias and the Sociology of Resentment  Bryan S. Turner  11. Abortion, Selflessness and "Happy Objects"  Erica Millar  12. Civilizing Marriage: Norbert Elias, Same-Sex Marriage and the State  Carol Johnson  Part 4: Trajectories of Civilization and De-Civilization?: Elias, Violence and Regression in Modern Societies  13. Comparative Reflections on The Civilizing Process  Peter Mayer  14. Marie Corelli, Shame and the "New Woman" in Fin-de-Siècle Britain  Sharon Crozier-De Rosa

    Biography

    David Lemmings is Professor of History in the School of History and Politics at the University of Adelaide and "Change" Program Leader in the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions.

    Ann Brooks is a Senior Visiting Research Fellow and Visiting Scholar at the Asia Research Institute, the National University of Singapore, and was previously a Visiting Scholar at the University of California, Berkeley, Department of Sociology, 2011-12. She was Professor of Sociology and Cultural Studies at the University of Adelaide in 2008-11, before becoming part of the Australian Research Council funded Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions, Change Program 2011-17.