Fall 2011 1

Sociology of Emotions Newsletter

From the Chair’s Desk Robin Simon, Wake Forest University

Greetings, and

welcome to the

Spring newsletter!

Work on behalf of

the section is pro-ceeding well.

Thanks to Karen

Hegvedt, Alison

Bianchi, Tim Hallett,

Richard Serpe, and

Amy Wilkins, we

have a strong slate of

people who will

stand for office this

year. The ASA has a

new system that has

made the process of collecting candi-

dates’ biographical

information smooth-

er than in the past.

The ASA Council met in February and

approved our requested changes to by-

laws, so we will be voting on candidates

for several offices and the proposed bylaw

changes later this spring. Plans for the

2012 meetings are also moving along

quite well. Jenn Lois and Doug Schrock organized very interesting paper sessions;

the invited session for the Chair’s Hour is

also set. Richard Serpe and Will Kalkoff,

who organized roundtables for the Social

Psychology section, didn’t receive papers

on emotion so it looks like there won’t be

a roundtable on emotion this year. I’ll

include details about the program in the

summer newsletter.

Although the Lifetime Achievement

Award committee did not receive nomina-

tions, the Outstanding Recent Contribu-tions Award committee received 12 books;

Kathryn Lively, Becky Erickson, and

Lynn Smith-Lovin have their work cut out

for them. Ellen Granberg, Catherine Har-

ris, and Clare Stacey are also busy reading

the many papers submitted for the Out-

standing Graduate Student Paper Award.

Jessica Levitto continues to improve our

website. If you haven’t had the chance to

do so, take a moment to visit it (http://

www2.asanet.org/Emotions/). March fig-

Spring 2012 Newsletter Volume 26, Number 1

ures for membership

are in; we currently

have 218 members,

which is similar to

our numbers at this time last year.

While we’re a small

section, one-third of

our membership is

comprised of stu-

dents, which speaks

to the health of the

section going for-

ward. March 31st is

the last day mem-

bers may join the

section and still par-ticipate in the elec-

tion; if you want to

have a voice in the

upcoming election,

please renew your membership if you

haven’t already done so.

Speaking about emotions, there’s so

much going on in the world at the mo-

ment that can be understood with an emo-

tions lens; there are too many current

events to comment on here but emotions scholarship sheds lights on a wide range

of things including societal reactions to

atrocities in Syria as well as heated de-

bates in the U.S. about the poor, marriage

equality, and insurance coverage for con-

traception. As I follow these events and

debates, I’m reminded of Candace Clark’s

seminal insights on sympathy – a role-

taking emotion that serves as social glue.

There are clear differences between na-

tions as well as our political parties re-

garding their sympathy for vulnerable populations and subsequent support (or

lack of support) for policies that would

ameliorate some of the challenges they

face. It’s also clear that authenticity – a

key concern for sociologists of emotion –

is playing a central role in the contentious

republican primaries and it’s likely that

authenticity and the ability to connect

emotionally with the electorate will be

pivotal in the upcoming presidential race.

I hope that some of our members are stud-

In This Issue: From the Chair’s Desk ................... 1-2

Editor’s Notes ................................... 2

Emotion Section Officers ................. 2

New Cites: Books ............................. 3

What’s On Your Bookshelf ................ 4

New Cites: Articles ........................... 5

Group Processes Conference

Information ...................................... 5

Divide and Conquer: The Politics of

Envy ................................................. 5

ying emotions in these and other political

contexts; sociologists have much to offer

here.

I’m forever grateful to Daniel Burton

Shank for his intrepid work on the newslet-ter. This one includes an article on Envy

by Gordon Clanton (page 5) and Marci

Cottingham wrote the “What's On Your

Bookshelf” column (page 4). You will

also find information about the upcoming

Group Processes Conference from Jessica

Collette (page 5). Although I’ve admitted-

ly not yet had a chance to read them, I

want to call your attention to some recent

books on emotion by our section members,

including Clare Stacey’s (“The Caring

Self: The Work Experiences of Home Care Aides”), Tom Scheff’s (“What's Love Got

to Do with It?: Emotions and Relationships

in Pop Songs“) and Amy Wil-

kins’ (“Wannabes, Goths, and Christians:

The Boundaries of Sex, Style, and Status”).

If you have a book that’s just out or is

coming out in the near future, shoot me an

email and I’ll let everyone know about it in

the next newsletter. By the way, there are

also some new books on emotion by psy-

chologists, including Susan Fiske’s (“Envy up, Scorn Down”), Rachel Hertz’ (“That's

Disgusting: Unraveling the Mysteries of

Repulsion”) and Marianne LaFrance’s

(“Lip Service: Smiles in Life, Death, Trust,

Lies, Work, Memory, Sex, and Politics”).

I think that’s all the news that’s fit to

print for now. Don’t hesitate to contact me

(simonr@wfu.edu) with suggestions for

(Continued on page 2)

Fall 2011 2

Sociology of Emotions Newsletter

Greetings! The

last newsletter was

packed with lots of

information including

conference high-lights, students on the

market, and infor-

mation from ASA

about our section.

This one – as is typi-

cal in the spring – is a

little shorter, but still

full of great infor-

mation! My recom-

mendation: read it

straight through!

I am expanding the coverage of the “New Cites” column: instead of limiting the new

books and articles to ones written by section

members, I would like for the newsletter to

provide a range of articles and books dealing

with emotion. As Robin points out in her col-

umn, there are a lot of cutting-edge books on

emotions in other disciplines like psychology.

I want the listings to reflect a bibliography of

current research, so I will retain current arti-

cles and books for multiple newsletter issues.

Finally, I want to keep it to published works, not simply to forthcoming research, so that

the section’s members can access or order it

immediately. So please send me your own

and others’ influential research. I hope you

continue to give me feedback on the newslet-

ter and Jessica feedback

on the website

(jleveto@kent.edu), so

that both of these are of

maximum benefit to our section.

My emotions this

academic year have

been up and down as I

have been on the mar-

ket, and finally, re-

lieved, happy, and ex-

cited as I have accepted

a new position. Next

time you read my col-

umn, it will be written

from the University of Alabama at Birming-ham where I will be a postdoctoral fellow

researching the social impacts of technology.

Being on the job market and academic transi-

tions more generally are emotion-filled

events, and I would be delighted to have an

experienced scholar write a column for the

next newsletter about his/her emotions over

the course of an academic career. In addition,

I solicit other guest columns on topics related

to emotions in current events, new perspec-

tives on emotions, or sparks of research ideas. The summer newsletter will come out a little

earlier than in years past. The deadline for

submissions is June 15th. Send me an email at

dbshank@uga.edu if you have a contribution

or an idea for one.

From The Chair’s Desk (continued)

the section and Daniel

(dbshank@uga.edu) with your ide-

as for the summer newsletter. I

would love to see one or more es-says in the next newsletter that

compares the emotions and authen-

ticity of the eventual republican

nominee and in Obama’s re-

election campaign. I also welcome

your thoughts about ways that we

could broaden the section’s appeal

to people who are working on emo-

tion but are not engaged in the sec-

tion. Is there is a graduate student

member out there who would be

willing to work with me identifying papers on emotion in the 2012

ASA program so I could invite the

authors of these papers to join our

section? If so, please email me. In

the meantime, best wishes for a

healthy, happy and productive

spring.

(Continued from page 1)

Emotions Section Officers

Chair Robin Simon Wake Forest University simonr@wfu.edu

Chair Elect Kathryn Lively Dartmouth College Kathryn.J.Lively@Dartmouth.edu

Past Chair Cathryn Johnson Emory University cjohns@emory.edu

Council Jody Clay-Warner University of Georgia jclayw@uga.edu

Council Allison Bianchi University of Iowa allison-bianchi@uiowa.edu

Council Jessica Collett, University of Notre Dame jlcollett@nd.edu

Council (student) Donna Lancianese University of Iowa donna-lancianese@uiowa.edu

Secretary-Treasurer Amy Wilkins University of Colorado Boulder amy.wilkins@colorado.edu

Newsletter Editor Daniel Shank University of Georgia dbshank@uga.edu

Webmaster and Social Media Manager

Jessica Leveto Kent State University jleveto@kent.edu

Editor’s Notes Daniel Shank, University of Georgia

Next Sociology of

Emotions Newsletter

Deadline: June 15th

Fall 2011 3

Sociology of Emotions Newsletter

Adler, Patricia A. and Peter Adler. 2011. The Tender Cut: Inside the

Hidden World of Self-Injury: NYU Press. Purchase.

Fiske, Susan T. 2011. Envy Up, Scorn Down: How Status Divides Us.

Russell Sage. Purchase.

Herz, Rachel. 2012. That’s Disgusting: Unraveling the Mysteries of

Repulsion. W. W. Norton. Purchase.

Holyfield, Lori. 2011. Veterans’ Journeys Home: Life after Afghani-

stan and Iraq. Paradigm. Purchase.

Kemper, Theodore D. 2011. Status, Power, and Ritual Interaction: A

Relational Reading of Durkheim, Goffman and Collins. Farnham,

United Kingdom: Ashgate. Purchase.

LaFrance, Marianne. 2011. Lip Service: Smiles in Life, Death, Trust, Lies, Work, Memory, Sex, and Politics. W. W. Norton. Purchase.

Leavey, Patricia. 2011. Low-Fat Love. Sense Publishers. Purchase.

Mullaney, Jamie L. and Janet Hinson Shope. 2012. Paid to Party:

Working Time and Emotion in Direct Home Sales: Rutgers Uni-

versity. Purchase.

Scheff, Thomas J. 2011. What's Love Got to Do with It?: Emotions

and Relationships in Pop Songs: Paradigm. Purchase.

Stacey, Clare L. 2011. The Caring Self: The Work Experiences of

Home Care Aides: Cornell University. Purchase.

New Cites: New Cites: Books Hot Off the PressBooks Hot Off the Press

Send citations for new articles and books to Daniel Shank.

Articles should be published (not forthcoming) and books

should be able to be ordered or preordered. That way read-

ers can access them right away. Contact Daniel Shank at

DBShank@uga.edu.

Fall 2011 4

Sociology of Emotions Newsletter

Tiffani Everett has accepted a position as As-

sistant Professor in the Department of Behav-

ioral Science at Arkansas Tech University in

Russellville, AR.

Daniel Shank has accepted a postdoctoral re-

search fellowship at the University of Alabama

Birmingham studying the Social Impacts of

Technology.

TransitionsTransitions

Stacey, Clare L. 2011. The Caring Self: The Work Experiences

of Home Care Aides. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

Providing a concise overview of the complexities of non-profit

and for-profit home-based care in California and Ohio, Stacey embeds the identity of the caring self cultivated by home care

aides within the broad forces of a shifting economy and increas-

ingly bureaucratic health policies. Home care presents a mix of

contradictions—blurring the line between public and private and

commercial and familial—leading to unclear “feeling rules” and

feelings of anger, fear, guilt, and grief. The work’s ambiguous

nature, however, also provides the groundwork for fictive famili-

al ties, an altruistic, caring self, as well as the long term and often

informal health care desperately needed by the elderly and disa-

bled patients home care aides serve. She explores the link be-

tween emotional labor and identity as well as the exploitative and

empowering nature of the work environment that aides encoun-ter. Focused on creating social change, Stacey discusses the col-

lective efforts and union skepticism among aides and important

policy changes that can better the lives of the aides themselves as

well as the individuals who depend on them.

Williams, Joan C. 2010. Reshaping the Work-Family Debate:

Why Men and Class Matter. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Uni-

versity Press.

Focused on the effects of masculine norms at work and a politi-

cal climate that fails to build coalitions, Williams’ work synthe-sizes data from multiple sources and across a variety of disci-

plines, including sociology, law, psychology, and political analy-

sis. Following her previous work in Unbending Gender, Wil-

liams highlights the source of work-family conflict as the mascu-

line norms that pervade the policies and structure of the work

environment, as well as the minimal government support work-

ing families receive. The first half of the book addresses the

popular media representation of mothers who “opt out” of ca-

reers in order to be at home full-time. She challenges the racial

and class-based assumptions of these news articles and notes the

severe and negative implications “opting out” can have for wom-

en who later divorce. Turning to men and masculinity, she ar-gues that family-friendly policies in the workplace would benefit

men who tag-team with partners to take care of children and the

need to understand men’s reluctance to express their involvement

in childcare as it undermines their masculine breadwinner ideal.

Turning to issues of class and politics, she argues for a recon-

structive feminist approach to build coalitions and transcend the

negative characterizations of the working class. Understanding, while not condoning, the sources of working class racism and

sexism is necessary for finding common ground and developing

a truly progressive policy agenda that benefits career women,

homemakers, working couples, and single mothers across the

economic spectrum.

Swartz, David. 1997. Culture and Power: The Sociology of

Pierre Bourdieu. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

Swartz provides a detailed overview of Bourdieu’s background,

heritage, and major theoretical developments. Throughout the

work, Bourdieu’s conception of habitus, field, and capital are contrasted with Marxist and Weberian perspectives, and framed

as part of the postmodern goal to move beyond the dualism be-

tween structural determinism and humanistic voluntarism, the

modern view of the consciously-calculating individual, and the

objective/subjective divide. To move beyond the dualisms of

structure/agency, order/change, and individual/society, Swartz

portrays Bourdieu's approach as one focused on culture and the

symbolic as delineated from the material. Symbolic violence--the

ability to mask actions of domination as disinterested and auton-

omous from forces of power--ensures continued economic domi-

nation while also operating in ways non-reductive to material interests. Turning to Bourdieu’s particular contribution to the

sociological study of education, Swartz notes his emphasis on

revealing the mechanisms of social reproduction in French higher

education as well as the relationship between intellectuals and

politics. Throughout the book, Swartz addresses the claims of

critics, particularly those who take issue with Bourdieu’s eleva-

tion of class as the primary shaper of life chances and the habi-

tus, as well as the overly deterministic form that habitus can take

in his writing. Finally, concerning Bourdieu’s reflexive sociolo-

gy, Swartz highlights the idealism and ambiguities in his hope

for a scientific intellectual who can bring to light relations of

power while also operating in the intellectual field—an arena itself that benefits from the misrecognition of political power.

What’s On Your Bookshelf?What’s On Your Bookshelf? By Marci Cottingham, University of AkronBy Marci Cottingham, University of Akron

The ASA Section on Sociology of Emotions brings together social and behavioral scientists in order to promote the general development of the study of emotions through the of ideas, theory, research, and teaching. Scholars from a variety of backgrounds are members of this section, and collectively encourage the study of emotions in everyday social life. Substantive topics of investigation include: the expression and experience of emotions, emotions in social interaction, identity and emotions, emotions in historical

perspective, the cross-cultural study of emotions, emotions and violence, and the tradi-tions of theory and research in the area of emotions.

The website for the ASA Section on Emotions seeks to serve the needs of section members and the greater American Sociological Association community. There you will find information about the Section on Emotions, calls for papers, section awards, key publications in the area of emotions, and a link to the section newsletter. Please visit the website regularly for updates and feel free to contact the section chair, Robin Simon for questions, suggestions and comments. Enjoy!!

Fall 2011 5

Sociology of Emotions Newsletter

Adler, Patricia A. and Peter Adler. 2011. "Emotions and Social

Movements: Twenty Years of Theory and Research." An-

nual Review of Sociology 37:285-304.

Kroska, Amy and Sarah K. Harkness. 2011. "Coping with the Stigma of Mental Illness: Empirically-Grounded Hypothe-

ses from Computer Simulations." Social Forces 89:1315-

1339.

Kuwabara, Ko. 2011. "Cohesion, Cooperation, and the Value

of Doing Things Together: How Economic Exchange Cre-

ates Relational Bonds." American Sociological Review

76:560-580.

Thye, Shane R. Edward J. Lawler, Jeongkoo Yoon. 2011. “The

Emergence of Embedded Relations in Networks of Com-

petition." Social Psychology Quarterly 74(4):387-413.

Vaccaro, Christian A., Douglas P. Schrock, and Janice M.

McCabe. 2011. “Managing Emotional Manhood: Fighting

and Fostering Fear in Mixed Martial Arts.” Social Psy-

chology Quarterly: 74: 414-437

Wilkens, Amy C. 2012. “’Not Out to Start a Revolution’:

Race, Gender, and Emotional Restraint among Black Uni-

versity Men” Journal of Contemporary Ethnography: 41:

34-65.

New Cites:New Cites: Articles Hot Off the PressArticles Hot Off the Press

Registration is now open for the 24th Annual Group Processes

Conference which will take place Thursday, August 16th, 2012 in

Denver, Colorado.

We look forward to an exciting schedule of both invited and open

sessions with a wide range of presenters and participants. Graduate

students are especially encouraged to submit abstracts for our

graduate student roundtables; they are an excellent opportunity to

get feedback on developing ideas!

The deadline for abstract submissions is March 15, 2012 and early

registration ends April 30, 2012.

To learn more about the conference, see the call for papers, and

register, visit our website: http://www.asu.edu/clas/ssfd/gp2012/

If you have any questions or concerns about the meeting, please

contact one of the organizers:

Jessica Collett, University of Notre Dame: jlcollett@nd.edu

D'Lane Compton, University of New Orleans: dcompton@uno.edu

Kathy Kuipers, University of Montana:

kathy.kuipers@umontana.edu

David Schaefer, Arizona State University: da-

vid.schaefer@asu.edu

Group Processes Conference By Jessica Collett, University of Notre Dame

Divide and Conquer: The Politics of Envy By Gordon Clanton, San Diego State University

Envy is hostility toward a superior, an attitude of resentment

toward someone who is better off. Envy is not the wish for what

one does not have. It is the darker wish that the superior should

lose the advantage that stimulated the envy. Another face of en-

vy is schadenfreude, malicious joy experienced when the superi-or loses or fails. A typical envious response is, “If I can’t have

X, neither should you.”

Envy is condemned in the Ten Commandments, the Seven

Deadly Sins, and every religious and ethical system of which we

have knowledge.

Envy is an inescapably political emotion. Competing politi-

cal and economic systems provide alternative strategies for man-

aging envy and reducing the damage it does.

The left seeks to reduce envy by reducing the inequality that

stimulates envy. The right seeks to reduce envy by ignoring or

by justifying that inequality. The left likes to stir up a little envy,

thus creating pressure for more equitable distribution of wealth. The right encourages the have-nots to convert their envy into

emulation — as though we all could be Donald Trump if we

worked harder.

But in real life most individuals aim most of their envy, not at

those at the top, but rather at those who are nearby and whose

advantage is relatively small. We are more likely to envy a

neighbor with a new car or a coworker who got a modest raise

than to envy the mega-wealthy and super-powerful.

When most envy is aimed at the very wealthy, people demand

higher taxes on the very rich. When most envy is aimed at near-

equals, the demand for more progressive taxation is weakened. Consider some ways in which our envy of near-equals serves

to divide us and to prevent progressive political action.

“If I don’t have a secure retirement, why should government

employees have a secure retirement?” Are pensions to be a thing

of the past for more and more of the population?

Many young adults do not support Social Security because

they have come to believe that they will never collect Social Se-

curity benefits — potentially a self-fulfilling prophecy.

“Why should I support raising the minimum wage, if I don’t

work in a minimum wage job?”

“Why should I care if unions are weakened, if I am not a un-

ion member?” Envious resentment of the small gains of near-equals distracts

us from the enormous, growing, cancerous inequality that charac-

terizes American society today.

Originally printed in the Del Mar Times

Gordon Clanton: gclanton@mail.sdsu.edu