5th ISA Forum of Sociology (6-11 July 2025)

The increasingly evident presence of emotions in the media, social networks, advertising, the entertainment business, political speeches and the market ostensibly makes visible its central importance for the development of public policies in general and of social policies in particular. Subsidies, aid, and transfers populate the world of human beings who experience poverty, marginalization and exclusion.
This session tries to fulfil a critical function by creating a platform for discussion about the intricate relationships among emotions, interstitial practices, and social policies.
The various forms of poverty, violence, precariousness, and uncertainties that emerge and develop from conditions of expulsion, migration, and injustice have hundreds of thousands of practices of compassion, love, trust, and hope as their counterparts.
The sociology of social policies and the sociology of emotions have reached a point of convergence in the current process of commodification of sensations, affects, and sensibilities that become a stage for a critical look at this process.
In this context, we call for papers that allow us to understand the current tension between the commodification of emotions and social policies as builders of sensitivities.
In this framework, we invite the presentation of papers that systematically reflect on the conditions of existence represented by the emotionalization of commodities and the commodification of emotions.