Randall Collins and the Sociology of Emotions (original) (raw)
Related papers
2016
How to cite Iagulli P. (2016), Randall Collins and the Sociology of Emotions [Italian Sociological Review, 6 (3), 411-429] Retrieved from http://dx. Abstract The objective of this article is to illustrate the close relationship between the thought of Randall Collins-well-known in Italy for his manuals, less so for his more innovative works-and the sociology of emotions. The publication of his book Conflict Sociology (1975) was one of the most significant episodes in the emergence of this field of study towards the end of the 1970s. More importantly, though, Collins' interaction ritual theory is inextricably linked to the emotions: his "ritual theory of emotions" is an integral part of IR theory and has become the theory of reference for what now constitutes an autonomous sociological approach to the emotions. Collins may be reproached for configuring the social actor as overly emotional, but obviously this is also a merit, if one considers for how long sociological the...
Interactionism and the Sociology of Emotions
Italian Sociological Review, 2019
The aim of this article is to draw attention to the close relationship that exists between interactionism and the sociology of emotions. Not only was the latter born (also) under the sign of interactionism, it has developed essentially through two perspectives, the positivist and the interactionist, that consider interaction a more or less fundamental dimension of the emotions as sociologically understood. It is the interactionist perspective that emphasizes its relevance, however, as demonstrated by two specific approaches which can be traced back to that perspective, the symbolic interactionist approach as such and the dramaturgical-cultural approach. Since it holds together the different ‘ingredients’ of the emotions, namely biology, culture and cognitive processes, the interactionist perspective is to be preferred for the purpose of adequately understanding them.
Even if emotions have gained an extraordinary cultural status, the attitude toward them remains ambivalent. On the one hand, the public exhibition of emotions represents the evidence of the development of a more intelligent and sensitive society, on the other hand boundaries are set for the emotions which are cause of social unease. Therefore, only the emotions useful to the project of individual self-fulfilment are presented in a favourable light while those which create dependences are looked at with suspicion: thus emotions are objects of cultural reverence but also of psychological treatment. In any case, emotions have always been represented as a constant characteristic of social life. From this point of view, if today the social debate revaluates the emotions and the duplicity of human being it’s because authors such as Georg Simmel and Norbert Elias have taught us that the individual should be analyzed and considered as a whole.
The Sociological Study of Emotions: Interactionist Analysis Lines
Italian Sociological Review, 2019
The main goal of this article is to trace some guidelines for a sociological study of emotions. By using the scientific approach of the Symbolic Interactionism, the main features of the interactionist study of emotions will be presented focusing on the processes that characterize the emotional experience of the daily life: naming, experience and construction of the emotional reality. In this context, we will go through the ‘four-factor model of emotion’ as well as the process related to the emotional socialization.
The Emotions in the Classics of Sociology
Routledge, 2022
The Emotions in the Classics of Sociology stands as an innovative sociological research that introduces the study of emotions through a detailed examination of the theories and concepts of the classical authors of discipline. Sociology plays a crucial role emphasizing how much emotional expressions affect social dynamics, thus focusing on the ways in which subjects show (or decide to show) a specifi c emotional behaviour based on the social and historical context in which they act. This book focuses the attention on the individual emotions that are theorized and studied as forms of communication between subjects as well as magnifying glasses to understand the processes of change in the communities. This volume, therefore, guides the readers through an in-depth overview of the main turning points in the social theory of the classical authors of sociology highlighting the constant interaction between emotional, social and cultural elements. Thus, demonstrating how the attention of the emotional way of acting of the single subject was already present in the classics of the discipline. The book is suitable for an audience of undergraduate, postgraduate students and researchers in sociology, sociology of emotions, sociology of culture, social theory and other related fields.
An historical sociology of emotion
Emotions in Social Life: Social Theories and …, 1998
This chapter will draw on the work of Norbert Elias and Marjorie Morgan in order to place our understanding of emotion within a socio-historical context. It focuses on Elias's and Morgan's work on emotional and social codes in France and England between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries. Attention is paid to the implications of this work for our current theorising around emotional labour, informalisation, and gender and emotion. Some critical consideration is also given to limitations in the work of Elias, particularly in regard to the metanarratival ambitions evinced in his work. This chapter will attempt to further our understanding of emotion through a consideration of the development of emotion codes from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century in France and England, drawing particularly on the early work of Norbert Elias (e.g. , and that of the social historian, Marjorie Morgan. Such emotion codes will be explored through the historical analysis of their inscription within the social practices of civility, manners and etiquette. The argument to develop this kind of analysis follows directly from that supportive of social/cultural constructionist perspectives, and their emphasis upon the plasticity of emotion and its lack of an essential universal vocabulary. Once one acknowledges that emotion is socially constructed one is also implicitly drawing attention to the historical, based on the simple argument that the social and cultural are historically formed . In other words, how can we really claim to know the social or the cultural if we are inattentive to the relations surrounding their development? More specifically in relation to this book, how can we aim to understand contemporary issues in emotion without exploring the historical context in which they have evolved?
Sociologizing with Randall Collins
European Journal of Social Theory
In the interview in this article, Randall Collins discusses various aspects of his oeuvre. First, he considers why interaction rituals (IRs) in religion are special emotional transformers. This is followed by a discussion of IRs in the digital age and the symbolic and economic power that is required to orchestrate IRs in politics and revolutions. Then comes a discussion of social scientific research into violence, in the past and more recently. The interview continues with a reflection on the notion of attention space, a concept which Collins has applied in analyses of violent interactions and the intellectual struggles between philosophers. Finally, the article considers the state of the art of sociology and its future prospects, evaluating its potential for rapid discovery and its position on the abstraction-reflexivity continuum. As the interview demonstrates Collins's insightful sociological craftsmanship, it provides social scientists with a strong and optimistic lead in how to do social theory.
Notes for a Critique to the Program of the Sociology of Emotions
Konfrontasi: Jurnal Kultural, Ekonomi dan Perubahan Sosial
This work elaborates a critique of the current program of the sociology of emotions that is located in the conceptual space around the definition of society. This impacts on the good development of concepts such as social interaction and cognition, fundamental to think about the role of the social in the emotional and emotional life of the subjects, in turn affecting the development of the sociology of emotions program which currently results incomplete and insufficient to explain the relationship between emotion, individual and society.
Simmel Studies, 2024
This book, edited by Massimo Cerulo (ordinary professor of sociology at Federico II University in Naples) and Adrian Scribano (researcher and sociologist at the National Council for Scientific and Technical Research in Argentina) offers a fresh and new look at the role of emotions in classic sociological authors such as Émile Durkheim, Max Weber, Gabriel Tarde, Charles Horton Cooley, Harriet Martineau, Karl Marx, Norbert Elias, Vilfredo Pareto, George Herbert Mead, Ibn Khaldun and, of course, Georg Simmel. Cerulo and Scribano’s text is not only innovative in its content but also in the way the book is structured. The editors have had the sensitivity and attention to bring together men and women who are researchers, scholars and professors from different countries around the world who engage in dialogue with classic authors from various historical periods. This effort also allows us to see the richness of dialogue between the global south and north through terms, concepts and theories that have accompanied classical sociology from its beginnings to the present day.
Sociological Reflexivity and the Sociology of Emotions
Sociology and Anthropology
Social theory is characterized by great creativity with regard to the formulation of categories and concepts that allow for the development of methodologies and social descriptions. Therefore, it is not surprising that in the past fifty years sociological reflexivity as a methodological element and research tool has become a fruitful and significant tool for social analysis. Sociological reflexivity plays a role in analysing the limits and conditions that shape and influence both sociology's object of study and the sociological researcher.The inward turn that sociology has made through sociological reflexivity leads us to new understandings of social action and opens up new avenues of study, as is apparent in the sociology of emotions developed by the American sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild. This article analyses the concepts of classical sociology that open up to sociological reflexivity and, consequently, the importance that this concept implies for the emergence of the sociology of emotions as a subfield of reflexive sociology.