On Studying Collective Emotions in Culture

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Abstract

Emotions are present in all aspects of human experience and are thus central to the study of the social world. As individuals, we respond and connect to our contexts through our emotions. We share emotions with others, and time and space affect shared emotions. This article is a critical review of key works from the existing literature on the sociology of emotions and an exploration of interdisciplinary methodologies in search of suitable analytical tools to effectively observe emotions at the cultural level in today’s world. Within sociology, there is a limited number of interpretive theoretical frameworks for the study of collective emotions at the cultural level, because most interpretive analyses of emotions have focused on micro-interactions. This article addresses this gap as well as the difficulties of empirically observing the relationship between collective emotions and the social structure. An additional concern that this study addresses is the emergence of new empirical conditions, such as the rapid expansion of digital communications.

Author

• Rebecca Blackwell, University of South Florida