How sociology of emotions is possible, and how it helps to understand happiness and justice

Abstract

The article is a reflection-review of the book by Scott R. Harris An Invitation to the Sociology of Emotions (translated from English by O.A. Simonova; Moscow: HSE; 2020). Certainly, such a type of scientific works does not need a review after publication, but this book requires special attention for sociology of emotions seems to be a marginal area of Russian sociology, at least in the institutional perspective. After a brief description of the origins and manifestations of the affective turn, the author considers its consequences for social sciences (recognition of the cultural nature of emotions, perception of emotional standards in the course of socialization, etc.), and reconstructs the sociological model for the study of emotions as developed by Harris: reliance on symbolic interactionism and the social exchange theory, analysis of the normative aspect of emotions (cultural expectations about how one should feel in different situations, social standards for assessing the acceptability of emotions, etc.) and of the procedural side of the emotional life (exchange of emotions, management of emotions, identification of emotions, and emotional labor).

Keywords

• emotions
• sociology of emotions
• affective turn
• emotional norms
• emotional labor
• management of emotions
• happiness
• justice