Public emotions

About this book

Emotions are increasingly and controversially central to our understanding of public life. Public Emotions argues that we need to examine, less the nature or causes of public emotions than their institutional, social and personal consequences, in relation to conflict, ritual, social classification, collective life, identity, memory and power. Chapters focus on the emotionality of specific social events and discourses: trauma and victimhood, parenting, public trust, 'cross-cultural' conflict, social exclusion and entitlement. The book starts with a comprehensive overview of social science emotion research today, and includes interdisciplinary contributions encompassing sociology, anthropology, political science, cultural studies and psychoanalysis.