The sociology of emotion and the emotion of sociology

Abstract

This article presents a synthesis of the theoretical contributions of three pioneers in the field of Sociology of Emotions: Thomas J. Scheff, Arlie R. Hochschild and Theodore D. Kemper. Professor Scheff has developed a lengthy, extensive and rigorous empirical and theoretical investigation programme on the emotions of shame and pride, which he considers to be social emotions par excellence. Professor Hochschild, contrary to the habitual practice in sociology, incorporates emotions as a key means of access to comprehension of any phenomenon or social situation. Professor Kemper, on the other hand, demonstrates the validity and necessity of the sociological perspective in order to understand emotions, in most cases originating in and fundamentally derived from a certain type of social relationship. Before the 1980's, sociological theories on emotions, explicitly conceived as such, we re not present in sociological tradition. Immersed in the main cultural current of modernity, characterised by a fervent rationalism, cognitivism and positivism, until now Sociology had only incorporated residual or incidental treatment of emotions. However, a social actor whose symbolic universe is exclusively made up of ideas or perceptions is inconceivable. The universe also includes value, and, without a doubt, this universe includes emotions. These emotions are a reflection, a condition and the final substratum of all human and social reflexivity. The description, explanation and sociological understanding of reality will be incomplete, and therefore false, if the sentient actor in the human play of interaction and intercommunication is not incorporated.