The Sociology of Emotion An Introduction

Emotions are usually seen as the terrain of psychology but they are also profoundly affected by social context. This new text investigates the boundaries between social/cultural explanations of emotional experience and bodily (biological/physiological) explanations and, in doing so, forges a clear outline of the novelty, importance, coherence, as well as limits, of a sociological approach to human feeling. The book engages with contending theoretical positions, drawing on cross-cultural empirical material to substantiate its arguments. Pitched carefully to an undergraduate readership, it is an ideal introduction to the field.