Postemotional Society

SAGE PUBLICATIONS INCISBN: 9780761951292

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By Stjepan Mestrovic
Imprint:
SAGE PUBLICATIONS INC
Release Date:
Format:
PAPERBACK
Dimensions:
234 x 156 mm
Weight:
330 g
Pages:
192

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Description

This volume demonstrates how the emotions in mass industrial societies have been neglected to devastating effect. It shows how emotion has become increasingly separated from action, how - in a world of disjointed and synthetic emotions - social solidarity has become increasingly problematic, and how compassion fatigue has increasingly replaced political commitment and responsibility. The book ranges from discussion of the relation between knowledge and the emotions in thinkers as diverse as Durkheim and Baudrillard to a "postemotional" analysis of the carnage in former Yugoslavia. The author concludes with a discussion of the postemotional society - where the peer group replaces the government as the means of social control.

Stjepan Mestrovic holds three degrees from Harvard University (in psychology, education, and theology) and a PhD in sociology from Syracuse University. He is the author of twenty books and numerous scholarly articles on classical and contemporary social theory, war crimes, and culture.

Foreword - David Riesman Introduction The End of Passion? Recontextualizing David Riesman's The Lonely Crowd The Authenticity Industry The Disappearance of the Sacred Death and the End of Innocence Conclusions The Final Triumph of Mechanization

As Mestrovic rightly notes, the missing ingredient in most sociological theorising is the role of the emotions. In this respect, Postemotional Society exemplifies both the importance and the dilemmas involved in the sociological study of emotions in social life... Drawing upon an eclectic variety of sources, from Durkheim to Baudrillard, Riesman to Ritzer, Doestoevsy to Orwell, Mestrovic argues that modernity's diametrically opposed tendencies towards order and chaos have resulted in a new hybrid world of rationally ordered, McDonaldised emotions... An insightful, thought-provoking book. -- Simon J. Williams, University of Warwick A valuable and stimulating learning experience... accessible, finely written, passionate and important. -- Keith Tester

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