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Symbolic Interactionism, Inequality, and Emotions

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Handbook of the Sociology of Emotions

Part of the book series: Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research ((HSSR))

Abstract

Emotions are central to everyday interactions. They motivate behavior, shape agency, contribute to self-control and social control, and bear the traces of systemic disadvantage. Our chapter explores the contributions of symbolic interactionism as a theoretical perspective in sociological studies of emotions. We focus on how an interactionist analysis of emotions has added immeasurably to our understanding of social interaction and, in particular, of social inequality. Not all interactionist research, including interactionist studies of emotion, focuses on inequality. However, in tracking the patterns of social interaction to their troubling consequences, we heed the advice of an early interactionist, Blumer (1969), who urged symbolic interactionist researchers to pay attention to the obdurate reality—the empirical patterns—going on around us. The obdurate reality that we observe is replete with examples of inequality and resistance in people’s ongoing social interactions. Thus, our goal is to present an overview of the territory that symbolic interaction and sociological studies of emotions share and then analyze the most challenging direction for interactionist research: understanding the reproduction of inequality.

The authors thank Jan Stets, Jonathan Turner, and Valerie Francisco for their comments on earlier versions of this chapter.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA, 94132

    Jessica Fields

  2. Department of Sociology and Anthropology, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, TN, 37614

    Martha Copp

  3. Department of Sociology, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599

    Sherryl Kleinman

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  1. Jessica Fields
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  2. Martha Copp
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  3. Sherryl Kleinman
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, University of California, Riverside, CA, 92521, USA

    Jan E. Stets  & Jonathan H. Turner  & 

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Fields, J., Copp, M., Kleinman, S. (2006). Symbolic Interactionism, Inequality, and Emotions. In: Stets, J.E., Turner, J.H. (eds) Handbook of the Sociology of Emotions. Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-30715-2_8

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