Jack Barbalet

Emotion, social theory, and social structure : a macrosociological approach

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data Barbalet, J. M., 1946– Emotion, social theory, and social structure: a macrosociological approach / J. M. Barbalet. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index.

Emotions beyond regulation : backgrounded emotions in science and trust

Emotions are understood sociologically as experiences of involvement. Emotion regulation influences the type, incidence, and expression of emotions. Regulation occurs through physical processes prior to an emotions episode, through social interaction in which a person’s emotions are modified due to the reactions of others to them, and by a person’s self-modification or management of emotions which they are consciously aware of. This article goes on to show that there are emotions which the emoting subject is not consciously aware of. Therefore, a certain class of emotions function by foregrounding external objects of attention while remaining outside the emoting subject’s consciousness. The nature and significance of such backgrounded emotions beyond explicit emotion regulation are explored through consideration of their role in theory choice in science and in trust relations.

CONSCIOUSNESS, EMOTIONS, AND SCIENCE

The centrality of emotions to all significant social, indeed human activities is now broadly acknowledged. Nevertheless, discussion of emotions in core activities of science, as distinct from the motivation of scientists, is undeveloped. In reviewing the role of emotions in science the paper shows that emotions provide consciousness of objects of scientific relevance. It is also shown that emotions necessary to scientific activities are typically experienced nonconsciously. These two issues, of emotional consciousness and nonconscious experience of emotion, raise a number of questions for the study of both consciousness and emotions.

Science and emotions

Science can proceed only when emotions are excluded. This conventional view is widely held but false; indeed, practically meaningless. On the contrary: the issues must be: Which emotions?, and how do they specifically relate to the activities at hand? The chapter considers the changing fortunes of emotions in the discourse of science. In doing so it demonstrates that emotions can be seriously considered in the sociology of science, even though it is hardly ever acknowledged that they have been. By focussing on the role of emotions in core scientific processes, our understanding of science is broadened and our account of emotions enriched.

William James: Pragmatism, Social Psychology and Emotions

At the core of pragmatism is the idea of an active projection of experience into the future. William James’s contribution to pragmatism included an emphasis on emotions in the apprehension of possible futures and related processes. After presenting a summary of Jamesian pragmatism, and especially the significance of emotions in it, the article notes the reception of James’s writings in Europe and their influence on European intellectual developments. Max Weber, for instance, studied James closely. He treated James’s approach to religion as a negative example. While Emile Durkheim rejected the individualist approach of James, he nevertheless found much of value in James’s conceptualization of religious experience, including its emotional underpinnings. Discussion below explores the neglected Jamesian quality of Durkheim’s account of religion. It is noted in conclusion that the more recent sociological neglect of James and the failure to appreciate his particular approach in pragmatism, coincided with the rise of Freudian psychology in the early decades of the twentieth century.

The Jamesian theory of action

By emphasizing the emotional basis of action and the orientation of action to the future, the theory of action in William James challenges and provides an alternative to accounts of action which emphasize cognition and norms. This paper provides a statement of the Jamesian theory of action, which has been neglected in sociology. The Jamesian critique of the approach to social action in symbolic interactionism and in Parsonss voluntaristic theory of action is also indicated in the paper. Other aspects of the Jamesian theory of action of interest to sociological concern treated in the paper are the non-constructionist account of emotion developed by James, and his reconceptualization of rationality as continuous with rather than opposed to emotion.

Limitations of Class Theory and the Disappearance of Status: The Problem of the New Middle Class

Through a brief examination of neo-Marxist and neo-Weberian arguments it is demonstrated that the class nature of the new middle class has yet to be established. The paper goes on to show that as well as differences arising out of material conditions (i.e. class differences), inequalities based on expectations of entitlement or norms are also significant in capitalist society. Webers treatment of status has not encouraged an adequate understanding of the concept, and an alternative is outlined. The paper then argues that the differences between the so-called new middle class and the working class are reasonably understood on a number of criteria as differences between status groups which form part of a single class. Not only does this approach remove a number of difficulties from accounts of the salariat, it also helps explain the different political alignments of social collectivities.

Guanxi, Tie Strength, and Network Attributes

Guanxi possesses a variant network form. A characterization of guanxi in terms of its cultural and institutional attributes is provided, paralleling accounts emphasizing respectively its expressive and instrumental qualities. Both are aspects of guanxi’s reputational focus. Tie strength is considered in terms of differences between latent-structure networks, where tie strength discerns patterned differences, and volitionally constructed networks, where it does not. It is shown that as guanxi networks are constituted by iterated obligations, influence (a directing power) cannot flow through them. Obligation (a constraining power) marks the character of guanxi networks. Finally, discussion turns to the information opaque nature of guanxi, resulting from guanxi’s cultivated form and the obligatory relationships underlying it (requiring confidentiality and mutual monitoring of participants). The adaptability of guanxi in different historical contexts, from imperial China to the present-day market reform period, is suggested throughout.

Emotions in politics : from the ballot to suicide terrorism

Politics and emotions have always gone together. The German sociologist, Max Weber, famously observed that action in a political community is ‘determined by highly robust motives of fear and hope’ (Weber 1970, p. 79). It is of interest that almost identical statements were expressed at the very beginning of the period of early modern politics. The English statesman and philosopher, Francis Bacon, wrote that ‘civil states’ offer bribes and punishments, ‘employing the predominant affections of fear and hope’, a possibility that arises from the fact that the ‘government of states’ relies upon ‘the government within’ (Bacon 1905, p. 145; emphasis in original). Similarly, the French writer, Jean-Francois Senault, in De l’Usage des Passions first published in1641 and translated into English only a short time later, wrote: Policy seems to have better intentions than Rhetorick; for when she excites fear or hope in man, by promises or by threats, she endeavours the welfare of particulars (Senault 1671, p. 174).

Market Relations as Wuwei: Daoist Concepts in Analysis of China's Post-1978 Market Economy

Abstract This paper shows how wuwei (effortless action) and associated concepts drawn from Daoist thought are applied in analyses of the Chinese market economy and state-economy relations published in recent issues of social science and Communist Party journals in the Peoples Republic of China. Such use of traditional concepts partially displaces Marxist terminology from “diagnostic economics”. In discussing the use of these concepts in 5 articles published between 2000 and 2008, the economic theory of Daodejing is also presented.