The potential of sociology of emotions in research of social problems

Abstract

Social problems have traditionally been the area of applied and empirical sociology with a positivist approach, while remaining apart from the theoretical and methodological turns in social knowledge. In this article, the author reasons sociology of emotions as a resource to update the theory of social problems based primarily on social constructionism. The emergence of social problems in public discourse and the field of the science is associated with changes in cultural norms and practices regulating the emotional sphere of people at individual and collective levels. However, emotional aspects of social problems still have not received systematic study in modern sociology. As a result, the main directions for possible inclusion of emotional components in the analysis of social problems were identified. First, social problems can be viewed as a process characterized by changes in the participants’ degree of emotional involvement and by the diversity of emotional expressions (anxiety, fear, compassion). A social problem goes from maximum emotional engagement of the participants to the formation of emotional devastation and then ‘compassion fatigue’. Secondly, the phenomenon of ‘compassion fatigue’ is worthy of detailed consideration. It is associated with both emotional expressions and ways of behaviour. Thirdly, we consider the construction of the victims’ and the perpetrators’ identities accompanied by emotional regulation, and we discuss new forms of discrimination and exclusion. Refs 23.