Department of Sociology 327 Uris Hall Cornell University Ithaca, NY 14853-7601 CSES Working Paper Series Paper #12 Mabel Berezin "Emotions and the Economy" October 2003 Emotions and the Economy1 Prepared for: Handbook of Economic Sociology, 2nd edition, Neil J. Smelser and Richard Swedberg, eds. Forthcoming Russell Sage Foundation and Princeton University Press. Mabel Berezin Associate Professor of Sociology 354 Uris Hall Cornell University Ithaca, New York 14853 607-255-4042
[email protected] 1 I wish to acknowledge Neil Smelser’s cogent comments on the first version of this manuscript. The patience of both editors has greatly enhanced the final product. Brooke West provided able assistance with tracking down references. 2 The Return of Emotion Emotion and economy describes a relation that social scientists have only recently begun to acknowledge and valorize. Outside of various fields of psychology, sociologists and economists often treat emotions as residual categories. It is arguable that the project of modern social science from its European 19th century origins to its contemporary variations defines emotion out of social action in general and economic action in particular. In contrast to other contributions to this volume that discuss more or less established literatures, this chapter attempts to suggest plausible analytic frames that re- inscribe emotion in social and economic action. Even though strong, let alone competing, paradigms have not developed around emotion and economy, this pairing does not constitute an uncharted terrain. Emotions, rather than gone from sociological and economic analysis, have been more aptly in disciplinary exile. Multiple signs suggest that emotions are re-entering sociological and economic analysis.