Week 8 Quiz

Goffman - Interaction Rituals, Hochschild - Mangaged Heart, Collins' Interaction Ritual Theory, Agency-Structure Debate (Giddens vs. Bourdieu)

Arlie Russel Hochschild

• The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling (1983)

• emotional labor falls on workers, especially in service-oriented professions

• fusion of Marx & Goffman

• case studies:

  • flight attendants: cheerful & accommodating

  • bill collectors: stern & authoritative

• surface acting vs. deep acting

• consequences of emotional labor

  • emotional alienation

  • commercialization of human feeling

emotional labor (Hochschild)

the process by which workers manage and regulate their emotions to align with organizational expectations or to fulfill the emotional requirements of a job.

• service-oriented professions

• selling emotional experiences

case study - flight attendants (Hochschild)

• expectation: maintain a cheerful and accommodating demeanor to enhance passenger experience

• training: instruction on suppressing negative emotions and exhibiting friendliness, regardless of personal feelings

case study - bill collectors (Hochschild)

• expectation: adopt a stern and authoritative presence to prompt debt repayment

• training: guidance on suppressing empathy to maintain a firm stance with debtors

surface acting (Hochschild)

altering external expressions without changing internal feelings; essentially “faking” the required emotions

• implication: can lead to emotional dissonance and stress due to disparity between felt and displayed

• front stage =/= backstage

deep acting (Hochschild)

attempting to modify internal feelings to genuinely align with expected emotions

• implication: may reduce emotional dissonance but can blur the line between authentic and managed feelings

• method acting; front stage = backstage

consequences of emotional labor (Hochschild)

• emotional exhaustion and burnout

• emotional alienation: potential loss of a sense of self due to continuous suppression or alteration of true emotions

• disproportionate burden on women, as many roles requiring emotional labor are female-dominated

• commercialization of human feeling

social situations as mini social systems (Goffman)

each social situation is like a mini social system with interdependent, functioning parts which strive for balance, order, and equilibrium among the selves involved in order to protect them.

why do we feel the need to protect the self? (Goffman)

avoiding embarrassment is important because we are tied together through emotions.

if embarrassed, risk falling out of character/off script —> deviating from script can crumple the social structure/expose it as fake.

mechanisms to create the self (Goffman)

social rituals in the form of conversations and interactions.

dependent on others for our sense of self.

interaction rituals (Goffman)

• religion has become remote to the everyday aspects

• Durkheim’s religious/social rituals do not happen on large scale

• rituals still occur and are essential components of everyday interaction

• the social self is the sacred symbolic object of most social rituals

  • worship one another and self identification

  • sense of self as a sacred object is reinforced through “worship”

macro-micro integration (Collins)

• macro-reality is a product of micro-processes

• macro-structures are social constructs

  • culture, social structure, statuses, roles, norms, classes all sociological illusions

• macro-structures are not actors

• macro-reality is a product of the “bundling” of micro-interactions

interaction ritual chains (Collins)

• mechanism that creates macro-structures

• components exchanged in everyday interaction:

  • cultural capital

  • emotional energy

• everyday life is a “marketplace” for exchange of resources

• rituals chained together in never-ending sequence

• always seeking to gain emotional energy

cultural capital (Collins)

• titles/positions, symbols, information, topics of conversations, ideas

• recognize other people and start conversation

emotional energy (Collins)

• feelings of group solidarity

  • mechanical solidarity for Durkheim

• spark of connection when successfully exchange cultural capital

interaction rituals and emotional energy (Collins)

• humans = emotional energy maximizers

• imbalances in emotional energy exchange and losses of emotional energy create tension and social discontinuity

• emotional energy is foundation of all social life

  • indicates successful membership in a group and a sense of belonging

  • formation of social classes, reproduce social hierarchy

• conversations (symbolic interaction) are merely the “spark” that activates the “electrical current” of emotional energy exchange

• cultural capital is our “ticket” into an interaction ritual where we acquire emotional energy

ingredients of rituals (Collins)

group presence, boundary to outsiders, common mood, common focus of attention —> create emotional energy —> stored in symbols

interaction rituals and macro-reality (Collins)

• social structure, culture, norms, roles, etc. are emergent properties of social interaction because cultural capital and emotional energy exchanges stabilize overtime

• individual interaction rituals cause changes in macro structures because individuals are always actively seeking to acquire more cultural capital, and thus, more emotional energy

high emotional energy levels produce… (Collins)

• high levels of motivation

• spontaneity

• creativity

• a sense of power

• a sense of belonging

low emotional energy levels produce… (Collins)

• low levels of motivation

• depression

• powerlessness

• fatalism

• alienation

superordination and emotional energy (Collins)

superordination (order giving) = emotional energy gain

• if cultural capital allows one to give orders/have power, it can be used to increase emotional energy

subordination and emotional energy (Collins)

subordination (order taking) = emotional energy loss

• if cultural capital puts one in a position where they take orders or are subject to power, it will cause decreased emotional energy

selecting interaction partners (Collins)

• select interaction partners to exchange emotional energy with based on presumed cultural capital

• maximize potential emotional energy exchange

• stabilizes patterns of interaction, producing continuity in what appears to be social structure and culture

How do “macro-structures” change? (Collins)

1. new forms of cultural capital are introduced

2. new ritual technologies are developed

macro-society as a social network (Collins)

macro-society is like a vast social network charged with the electricity of emotional energy

• emotional energy stars: tons of good, strong connections

sociological influences on Collins’ interaction ritual theory

• Durkheim - rituals and emotional energy

• Goffman - interaction rituals

• Simmel - society as a marketplace of exchange

• Mead/Blumer - society as symbolic interaction

• phenomenology/ethnomethodology - emphasis on empirically observable processes

• adopts the general network model

interaction ritual chains and dynamics of conflict and violence (Collins)

• focuses on the patterns of face-to-face interactions

• how certain social rituals can escalate into violent confrontations

• sociological organization required for violence

  • direct violence relatively rare

  • direct violence is inefficient

agency-structure debate

structures: culture, social structure, social systems, economic structures exist, but where are the people as active agents?

• Durkheim, Marx, Parsons

actors: micro-interactions exist as well as active agents, but where is the structure and culture?

• Mead and Blumer

voluntarism vs determinism

agency

the active, spontaneous, and creative aspects of society

• society as an ever-changing process

structure

ordered, patterned, and routinized aspects of society

• society as an objective fact

agency-structure problem

How can a theory be developed which combines both agency and structure?

• Anthony Giddens

• Pierre Bourdieu

structuration (Giddens)

structure + action

• dualities not dualisms

• structure is what we do

• free actor is always acting with and through social structure

• social structures are expressed through the practices of agents, which in turn reproduces the structures which guided the practices

habitus (Bourdieu)

an embodied system of tastes, dispositions, ideas, and cultural capital

• “structured structure” and “structuring structure”

• internalized social structure and means by which social structure is created