Abstract
This chapter illustrates Collins’ theory of Interaction Ritual Chains (Interaction Ritual Chains. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2004) describing social structures in terms of processes which are interactionally and situationally reproduced through emotional dynamics. This chapter also clarifies how this theoretical approach challenges our conventional views of care-related inequality and helps us shedding light on less visible and less explored implications of care.
The study of emotions in everyday life helps remedy the failure of the social and psychological sciences to appreciate the hidden sensual and aesthetic foundations of the self.
Jack Katz
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsNotes
- 1.
In sociology , Gordon (1981) distinguished emotions as relatively undifferentiated bodily arousals from sentiments as combinations of bodily sensations, gestures and cultural meanings learned in enduring social relationships. Thoits (1989) differentiated between feelings, which include the experience of physical drive states (e.g. hunger, pain and fatigue) as well as emotional states; affects, which refer to positive and negative evaluations (liking/disliking) of an object, behaviour, or idea and possess intensity and activity dimensions (Heise 1977); moods , which are usually more chronic and less intense than emotions, and less tightly tied to an eliciting situation; sentiments , as “socially constructed patterns of sensations, expressive gestures, and cultural meanings organized around a relationship to a social object, usually another person” (Gordon 1981); and emotions , as culturally delineated types of feelings or affects. Following Turner and Stets’ suggestion (2005), I will use here the term emotion as subsuming the phenomena denoted by all these different labels. For a thorough analysis of definitional issues and an extensive review of the sociology of affect and emotion, see also Lynn Smith-Lovin (1995).
- 2.
For a recent, introductory and critical overview of the work sociologists of emotions have carried out so far, see also Bericat (2012, 2015). For an exhaustive review of interdisciplinary approaches to emotions and their relationship with social structures, see the article by Von Scheve and Von Luede (2005).
- 3.
An interesting overview of research that focuses on the neglected experience of men as caregivers is offered by Betty Kramer and Edward Thompson (2005).
- 4.
Notably, it allows us to explain the inconsistencies between people’s attitudes and behaviours. As Collins puts it in the following passage: “What IR theory adds to contemporary cultural theory in this regard is that what people think they believe at a given moment is dependent upon the kind of interaction ritual taking place in that situation: people may genuinely and sincerely feel the beliefs they express at the moment they express them, especially when the conversational situation calls out a higher degree of emotional emphasis; but this does not mean that they act on these beliefs, or that they have a sincere feeling about them in other everyday interactions where the ritual focus is different” (Collins 2004: 44).
- 5.
“Every individual goes through many situations: indeed, a life time is, strictly speaking, a chain of interaction situations. […] An appropriate image of the social world is a bundle of chains of interactional experience, criss-crossing each other in space as they flow along in time” (Collins 1984: 387).
- 6.
- 7.
Getting insights into the emotional stratification produced by parental care was not an easy task and it required a qualitative multi-method approach, which I describe with details in the appendix of this book.
- 8.
Collins (2004: 272, 291, 295).
- 9.
The interview question was: Do you think other people started thinking of you in a different way since you became a parent?
- 10.
For a recent contribution to critical heterosexual studies, see also Ingraham (2005).
- 11.
Actually, they are “PACSed”. At the time of the interview, and before same-sex marriage became legal, in France, a Pacte Civil de Solidarité (civil pact of solidarity) commonly known as a PACS was a form of civil union between two adults (either same-sex or opposite-sex) for organizing their joint life. It brought rights and responsibilities, but less so than marriage.
- 12.
- 13.
Townsend (2002).
References
Archer, M. S. (2003). Structure, Agency, and the Internal Conversation. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Archer, M. S. (2007). Making Our Way Through the World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Barbalet, J. M. (2001). Emotion, Social Theory, and Social Structure. A Macrosociological Approach. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Bericat, E. (2012). Emotions. Sociopedia.isa. doi:10.1177/205684601361.
Bericat, E. (2015). The Sociology of Emotions: Four Decades of Progress. Current Sociology, 64(3), 491–513.
Berkowitz, D., & Marsiglio, W. (2007). Gay Men: Negotiating Procreative, Father, and Family Identities. Journal of Marriage and Family, 69, 366–381.
Collins, R. (1975). Conflict Sociology: Toward an Explanatory Science. Berkeley: Academic Press.
Collins, R. (1981). On the Microfoundations of Macrosociology. American Journal of Sociology, 86(5), 984–1014.
Collins, R. (1984). The Role of Emotion in Social Structure. In K. R. Scherer & P. Ekman (Eds.), Approaches to Emotion (pp. 385–396). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Collins, R. (1990). Stratification, Emotional Energy, and the Transient Emotions. In T. D. Kemper (Ed.), Research Agenda in the Sociology of Emotions (pp. 27–57). New York: State University of New York Press.
Collins, R. (1993). Emotional Energy and the Common Denominator of Rational Action. Rationality and Society, 5, 203–230.
Collins, R. (2004). Interaction Ritual Chains. Princeton, NJ; Oxford: Princeton University Press.
Dermott, E. (2008). Intimate Fatherhood. London: Routledge.
Doucet, A. (2006). Do Men Mother?: Fathering, Care, and Domestic Responsibility. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Duncan, S. (1995). Theorizing European Gender Systems. Journal of European Social Policy, 5(4), 263–284.
Duncan, S., & Smith, D. (2006). Individualisation Versus the Geography of ‘New’ Families. Twenty-First Century Society, 1(2), 167–189.
Esping-Andersen, G. (2013). The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Fredriksen-Goldsen, K. I., & Hoy-Ellis, C. P. (2007). Caregiving with Pride: An Introduction. Journal of Gay & Lesbian Social Services, 18(3–4), 1–13.
Furstenberg, F. F. (1988). Good Dads—Bad Dads: Two Faces of Fatherhood. In A. J. Cherlin (Ed.), The Changing American Family and Public Policy (pp. 193–218). Washington, DC: The Urban Institute Press.
Furstenberg, F. F. (Ed.). (2002). Early Adulthood in Cross-National Perspectives (Vol. 580). London: SAGE Publications.
Furstenberg, F. F. (2005). The Future of Marriage. In A. S. Skolnick & J. H. Skolnick (Eds.), Family in Transition (13th ed., pp. 190–196). Boston: Pearson Allyn & Bacon.
Gabb, J. (2008). Researching Intimacy in Families. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Gabb, J. (2009). Researching Family Relationships: A Qualitative Mixed Methods Approach. Methodological Innovations Online, 4(2), 37–52.
Gagnon, J., & Simon, W. (1973). Sexual Conduct: The Social Sources of Human Sexuality (2nd ed.). Chicago: Aldine.
Giddens, A. (1992). The Transformation of Intimacy: Sexuality, Love and Intimacy in Modern Societies. Cambridge: Polity.
Golombok, S. (2015). Modern Families: Parents and Children in New Family Forms. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Gordon, S. I. (1981). The Sociology of Sentiments and Emotions. In M. Rosenberg & R. H. Turner (Eds.), Social psychology: Sociological Perspectives (pp. 261–278). New York: Basic Books.
Gordon, S. L. (1990). Social Structural Effects on Emotion. In T. D. Kemper (Ed.), Research Agenda in the Sociology of Emotions (pp. 145–179). Albany: SUNY Press.
Hammond, M. (1990). Affective Maximization: A New Macro-Theory in the Sociology of Emotions. In T. D. Kemper (Ed.), Research Agendas in the Sociology of Emotions (pp. 58–81). Albany: SUNY Press.
Heise, D. R. (1977). Social Action as the Control of Affect. Behavioral Science, 22, 163–177.
Hertz, R. (2006). Single By Chance, Mothers by Choice. How Women are Choosing Parenthood Without Marriage and Creating the New American Family. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press.
Hicks, S. (2011). Lesbian, Gay and Queer Parenting: Families, Intimacies, Genealogies. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Hochschild, A. (1975). The Sociology of Feeling and Emotion: Selected Possibilities. In M. Millman & R. M. Kanter (Eds.), Another Voice. New York: Anchor Books.
Hochschild, A. (1979). Emotion Work, Feeling Rules, and Social Structure. The American Journal of Sociology, 85(3), 551–575.
Hochschild, A. (1983). The Managed Heart. Commercialization of Human Feeling. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Ingraham, C. (2005). Thinking Straight. The Power, the Promise, and the Paradox of Heterosexuality. New York: Routledge.
Jamieson, L. (1999). Intimacy Transformed? A Critical Look at the ‘Pure Relationship’. Sociology, 33(3), 477–494.
Katz, J. (1999). How Emotions Work. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Kemper, T. D. (1978). A Social Interactional Theory of Emotions. New York: Wiley.
Kemper, T. D. (Ed.). (1990). Research Agendas in the Sociology of Emotions. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Kramer, B. J., & Thompson, E. H. (2005). Men as Caregivers. Amherst; New York: Prometheus Books.
Langdridge, D. (2013). Gay Fathers, Gay Citizenship: On the Power of Reproductive Futurism and Assimilation. Citizenship Studies, 17(6–7), 728–741.
Laumann, E. O., Gagnon, J. H., Michael, R. T., & Michaels, S. (1994). The Social Organization of Sexuality. Sexual Practices in the United States. Chicago; London: The University of Chicago Press.
Lawler, E. J. (2001). An Affect Theory of Social Exchange. American Journal of Sociology, 107, 321–352.
Lewis, J. (1997). Gender and Welfare Regimes: Further Thoughts. Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State & Society, 4(2), 160–177.
Mallon, G. P. (2004). Gay Men Choosing Parenthood. New York: Columbia University Press.
McLaughlin, J., Phillimore, P., & Richardson, D. (Eds.). (2011). Contesting Recognition: Culture, Identity and Citizenship. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
McMahon, M. (1996). Significant Absences. Qualitative Inquiry, 2(3), 320–336.
Noddings, N. (1984 [2003]). Caring. A Feminist Approach to Ethics and Moral Education (2nd ed.). Berkeley: University of California Press.
O’byrne, D. J. (2003). The Dimensions of Global Citizenship: Political Identity Beyond the Nation-State. London: Routledge.
Pakulski, J. (1997). Cultural Citizenship. Citizenship Studies, 1(1), 73–86.
Plummer, K. (2003). Intimate Citizenship: Private Decisions and Public Dialogues. Seattle; London: University of Washington Press.
Rabun, C., & Oswald, R. F. (2009). Upholding and Expanding the Normal Family: Future Fatherhood Through the Eyes of Gay Male Emerging Adults. Fathering, 7(3), 269–285.
Richardson, D., & Monro, S. (2012). Sexuality, Equality and Diversity. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Roseneil, S. (2010). Intimate Citizenship: A Pragmatic, Yet Radical, Proposal for a Politics of Personal Life. European Journal of Women’s Studies, 17(1), 77–82.
Roseneil, S., & Budgeon, S. (2004). Cultures of Intimacy and Care Beyond ‘The Family’: Personal Life and Social Change in the Early 21st Century. Current Sociology, 52(2), 135–159.
Ruddick, S. (1998). Care as Labor and Relationship. In J. G. Haber & M. S. Halfon (Eds.), Norms and Values: Essays on the Work of Virginia Held (pp. 3–25). Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
Scharff, C. (2014). Gender and Neoliberalism: Exploring the Exclusions and Contours of Neoliberal Subjectivities. Theory, Culture and Society. Retrieved from http://www.theoryculturesociety.org/christina-scharff-on-gender-and-neoliberalism/
Scheff, T. J. (1979). Catharsis in Healing, Ritual, and Drama. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Scheff, T. J. (1983). Toward Integration in the Social Psychology of Emotions. Annual Review of Sociology, 9, 333–354.
Scheff, T. J. (1990). Microsociology Discourse, Emotion, and Social Structure. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Scheff, T. J. (1997). Emotions, the Social Bond and Human Reality. Part/Whole Analysis. Cambridge: University Press.
Scheff, T. J. (2003). Shame and Self in Society. Symbolic Interaction, 26, 239–262.
Shott, S. (1979). Emotion and Social Life: A Symbolic Interactionist Analysis. American Journal of Sociology, 84(6), 1317–1334.
Smart, C. (2007). Personal life. Cambridge: Polity.
Smith-Lovin, L. (1990). Emotion as the Confirmation and Disconfirmation of Identity: An Affect Control Model. In T. D. Kemper (Ed.), Research Agendas in the Sociology of Emotions (pp. 238–270). Albany: State University of New York Press.
Smith-Lovin, L. (1993). Can Emotionality and Rationality Be Reconciled? Rationality and Society, 5(2), 283–293.
Smith-Lovin, L. (1995). The Sociology of Affect and Emotion. In K. Cook, G. Fine, & J. S. House (Eds.), Sociological Perspectives on Social Psychology (pp. 118–148). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Stacey, J. (1996). In the Name of the Family. Rethinking Family Values in the Postmodern Age. Boston: Beacon Press.
Stacey, J. (2005). The Families of Man: Gay Male Intimacy and Kinship in a Global Metropolis. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 30(3), 1911–1935.
Stacey, J. (2006). Gay Parenthood and the Decline of Paternity as We Knew It. Sexualities, 9(1), 27–55.
Stets, J. E., & Turner, J. H. (Eds.). (2014). Handbook of the Sociology of Emotions (Vol. 2). New York: Springer.
Stryker, S. (2004). Integrating Emotion Into Identity Theory. Advances in Group Processes, 21, 1–23.
Stychin, C. F. (2001). Sexual Citizenship in the European Union. Citizenship Studies, 5(3), 285–301.
Stychin, C. F. (2003). Same-Sex Sexualities and the Globalization of Human Rights Discourse. McGill LJ, 49, 951.
Summers-Effler, E. (2004). A Theory of the Self, Emotion, and Culture. Advances in Group Processes, 21, 273–308.
Thoits, P. A. (1989). The Sociology of Emotions. Annual Review of Sociology, 15(1), 317–342.
Townsend, W. (2002). The Package Deal. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Turner, B. S. (1993). Contemporary Problems in the Theory of Citizenship. In B. S. Turner (Ed.), Citizenship and Social Theory (pp. 1–18). London: Sage.
Turner, J. H. (1999). Toward a General Sociological Theory of Emotions. Journal for the Theory of Social Behavior, 29, 133–162.
Turner, J. H., & Stets, J. E. (2005). The Sociology of Emotions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Von Scheve, C., & Von Luede, R. (2005). Emotion and Social Structures: Towards an Interdisciplinary Approach. Journal for the Theory of Social Behavior, 35(3), 303–328.
Weeks, J. (1998). The Sexual Citizen. Theory, Culture, Society, 15(3/4), 35–52.
Weeks, J., Heaphy, B., & Donovan, C. et al. (2001). Same Sex Intimacies: Families of Choice and Other Life Experiments. London: Routledge.
Wiley, N. (1994). The Semiotic Self. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Wilson, A. R. (2009). The ‘Neat Concept’ of Sexual Citizenship: A Cautionary Tale for Human Rights Discourse. Contemporary Politics, 15(1), 73–85.
Weston, K. (1997). Families We Choose: Lesbians, Gays, Kinship. New York City: Columbia University Press.
Young, B. (2000). Disciplinary Neoliberalism in the European Union and Gender Politics. New Political Economy, 5(1), 77–98.
Yuval-Davis, N. (2007). Intersectionality, Citizenship and Contemporary Politics of Belonging. Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy, 10(4), 561–574.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Pratesi, A. (2018). Macro-Structural Relevance of Emotions. In: Doing Care, Doing Citizenship . Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63109-7_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63109-7_4
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-63108-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-63109-7
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)