Civilizing Emotions

Tracing the history of the concepts of civility and civilisation, 'Civilizing Emotions' chooses a global perspective and highlights the role of civility and civilisation in the creation of a new and hierarchised global order in the era of high imperialism and its entanglements, focusing on the developments in a number of well-chosen European and Asian countries. Emotions were at the core of the practices linked to the political project of the civilising process. 'Civilizing Emotions' brings out the role of emotions as an object of the civilising process.

Exploring the political, social and familial ties in early modern Ottoman society, this book is a timely contribution to both the history of emotions and the study of the Ottoman Empire. Spanning compassion in political discourse and shame in judicial courts, to affection in the home, and hate in divorce cases, Emotions in the Ottoman Empire considers the role of emotions in both micro and macro settings. Drawing on Ottoman primary sources such as advice manuals, judicial court records and imperial decrees, this book argues that emotions in early modern Ottoman society were not just linguistic expressions of inner feelings but acted as tools for social and political communication. Using emotions it also reveals the experiences of everyday, ordinary people; why shame was always expressed by men, why gratitude played such an important role in local guilds and why Ottoman women used public baths as emotional refuges. Highlighting a culture that has so far been neglected in the history of emotions, this book looks to globalise the field and think more deeply about Ottoman society in the early modern period.

The idea of civilization recurs frequently in reflections on international politics. However, International Relations academic writings on civilization have failed to acknowledge the major 20th-century analysis that examined the processes through which Europeans came to regard themselves as uniquely civilized – Norbert Elias’s On the Process of Civilization. This book provides a comprehensive exploration of the significance of Elias’s reflections on civilization for International Relations. It explains the working principles of an Eliasian, or process-sociological, approach to civilization and the global order and demonstrates how the interdependencies between state-formation, colonialism and an emergent international society shaped the European 'civilizing process'.

The Routledge History of Emotions in the Modern World brings together a diverse array of scholars to offer an overview of the current and emerging scholarship of emotions in the modern world. Across thirty-six chapters, this work enters the field of emotion from a range of angles. Named emotions – love, anger, fear – highlight how particular categories have been deployed to make sense of feeling and their evolution over time. Geographical perspectives provide access to the historiographies of regions that are less well-covered by English-language sources, opening up global perspectives and new literatures. Key thematic sections are designed to intersect with critical historiographies, demonstrating the value of an emotions perspective to a range of areas. Topical sections direct attention to the role of emotions in relations of power, to intimate lives and histories of place, as products of exchanges across groups, and as deployed by new technologies and medias. The concepts of globalisation and modernity run through the volume, acting as foils for comparison and analytical tools. The Routledge History of Emotions in the Modern World is the perfect resource for all students and scholars interested in the history of emotions across the world from 1700.

This edited collection takes a critical perspective on Norbert Elias’s theory of the "civilizing process," through historical essays and contemporary analysis from sociologists and cultural theorists. It focuses on changes in emotional regimes or styles and considers the intersection of emotions and social change, historically and contemporaneously. The book is set in the context of increasing interest among humanities and social science scholars in reconsidering the significance of emotion and affect in society, and the development of empirical research and theorizing around these subjects. Some have labeled this interest as an "affective turn" or a "turn to affect," which suggests a profound and wide-ranging reshaping of disciplines. Building upon complex theoretical models of emotions and social change, the chapters exemplify this shift in analysis of emotions and affect, and suggest different approaches to investigation which may help to shape the direction of sociological and historical thinking and research.

Preface: notes on the sociology of emotions in Europe / Jochen Kleres --Introduction: an emotions lens on the world / Arlie Russell Hochschild -- Consciousness, emotions, and science / Jack Barbalet -- Extreme feelings and feelings at extremes / Helmut Kuzmics -- Hearts or wombs? A cultural critique of radical feminist critiques of love / Eva Illouz and Eitan Wilf -- Mediatizing traumas in the risk society: a sociology of emotions approach / Nicolas Demertzis -- The civilizing of emotions: formalization and informalization / Cas Wouters -- What makes us modern(s)? The place of emotions in contemporary society / Patrick Becker -- Shame and conformity: the deference-emotion system / Thomas J. Scheff -- The "neurosociology" of emotion? Progress, problems and prospects / Simon J. Williams -- Refugee solidarity: between national shame and global outrage / James Goodman -- Just being there: buddies and the emotionality of volunteerism / Jochen Kleres -- Mediated parasocial emotions and community: how media may strengthen or weaken social communities / Katrin Doveling.