Applying theory in practice: Politics and emotions in everyday life

Abstract

Now we have established some of the microfoundations of emotion in the previous two chapters we want to turn to the practical application of the study of emotion in everyday life. To reiterate some of the themes thus far, we have argued that emotions occupy a place of ambiguity in the popular imagination or consciousness. Emotion is often seen as an eruption of the irrational, for example, of a rage where the individual is unable to contain his or her feelings and act in a rational manner. We tend to see eruptions of such ʼnegative emotions’ as bad or destructive whereas it is quite all right to fall in love. Academically, there has always been a tension between what we might call a social constructionist view of emotions and that of a biological standpoint. In other words are emotions part of cultural socialization or are they an innate part of the structure of our biology? At times the counterposition of social constructionism to biological reductionism, the nature-versus-nurture debate if you like, has detracted from their study. Several of the chapters in this second part of the book take a far more reconciliatory view. They carve a path between what we might term ‘learnt behaviour’ and the idea that we may also have certain innate predispositions and reactions that are driven by our unconscious mind.