Jochen Kleres

Empirically, this book is a case-study analysis of dissolution processes in German AIDS organizations. Indeed, why is it that civic organizers start out with a commitment to a cause but end up dissolving their organization? This question is exactly what Kleres seeks to tackle within The Social Organization of Disease. Focusing on the emotional bases of dissolved German AIDS organizations to develop a typology of civic action and organizing, Kleres presents a perspective on non-profit organizations that analyses organizational development through the emotional sense making of individual organizers, within the light of larger political processes and cultural contexts. To this end, this volume develops and applies a new methodology for researching emotions empirically, expanding the scope of narrative analysis. However, parallel to this, The Social Organization of Disease also explores how shifting discursive processes establish emotional climates and thus impact on state policies and the evolution of AIDS organizing. The book would appeal to sociologists and political scientists working in the field of social movements and non-profit organisations: but it would also appeal to those who are interested in the sociology of emotions. It would potentially be of interest to non-profit scholars who consider community-based organizations, volunteerism and advocacy, and secondarily, to medical sociologists interested in AIDS service organizations. Sociology, International relations, Social Work, Political Science. May be of interest for NGO-activists and/or employees and leadership.

Emotions and Civic Action

The Social Organization of Disease

Helena Flam

Gathering scholars from different disciplines, this book is the first on how to study emotions using sociological, historical, linguistic, anthropological, psychological, cultural, and mixed approaches. Bringing together the emerging lines of inquiry, it lays foundations for an overdue methodological debate. The volume offers entrancing short essays, richly illustrated with examples and anecdotes, that provide basic knowledge about how to pursue emotions in texts, interviews, observations, spoken language, visuals, historical documents, and surveys. The contributors are respectful of those being researched and are mindful of the effects of their own feelings on the conclusions. The book thus touches upon the ethics of research in vivid first person accounts. Methods are notoriously difficult to teach—this collection fills the gap between dry methods books and students’ need to know more about the actual research practice.

Methods of Exploring Emotions

Yvonne Albrecht

​Grundlegende Prämisse der Soziologie der Emotionen ist es, dass Gefühle für alle Aspekte des Sozialen relevant sind. Wenn Emotionen von Individuen und soziale Kontexte in einem Wechselverhältnis zueinander stehen, stellt sich die Frage, welche Formen sozialer Verknüpfungen so konstituiert werden. Jenseits ihres verbindenden Potentials gilt es dabei insbesondere, Ambivalenzen der von Emotionen begründeten Sozialität in den Blick zu nehmen. Inkludierende und exkludierende Aspekte von Emotionen können dabei eng miteinander verwoben sein und sogar Teil ein und derselben sozialen Beziehung ausmachen. Diese Perspektive lässt sich auch für transnationale Kontexte nutzbar machen. Schließlich gilt es, diese Fragen methodologisch für empirische Forschung zu reflektieren. Der vorliegende Band zeigt somit eindrücklich, dass alle Bereiche des gesellschaftlichen Lebens von Emotionen nicht nur grundiert und durchzogen sind, sondern dass sie für Gesellschaft vielmehr konstitutiv sind.

Jochen Kleres

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