Affect, Emotions, Feelings, Senses, Sensibilities: Conceptual Consistencies and Inconsistencies (2)

Thursday, 10 July 2025: 15:00-16:45
Location: SJES022 (Faculty of Legal, Economic, and Social Sciences (JES))
WG08 Society and Emotions (host committee)

Language: English

The coexistence of different theoretical approaches to the social study of human subjectivity has led to the development of a plurality of categories referring to its object. In the case of sociology, certain schools of thinking have privileged the use of specific concepts to address the realm of the subjective and the social interactions related to it, such as ‘affects’, ‘emotions’, ‘sensibilities’, ‘senses’, and ‘feelings’, among others. While certain areas of scholarship use such terms interchangeably or with some elasticity, other theoretical and epistemological approaches impose rigidity, consistency, and exactitude in their use. But what really separates ‘affect’ from ‘emotion’ from ‘feelings’, say, or ‘senses’ from ‘ sensibilities’ anyway? How and why does this matter?

The present session aims to answer these questions by means of conceptually innovative contributions, with or without empirical content, that problematise the forms of conceptualising human subjectivity in sociology in these ways, and which are attentive to the philosophical, psychological, psychoanalytic, and other disciplinary genealogies through which the terms have gained currency in sociology and elsewhere. Accepted papers will prompt thorough, provocative, and fair-minded discussion regarding the consistencies and inconsistencies between these concepts, their related categories, and their disciplinary histories and origins.

In addition, we want contributors to reflect on what these consistencies and inconsistencies mean for different sociological approaches, research contexts, and empirical engagements.

This session constitutes a joint effort between the WG08 ‘Emotions and Society’ and the TG07 ‘Senses and Society’.

Session Organizers:
Nicolas ARENAS, London School of Economics, United Kingdom and Mark PATERSON, University of Pittsburgh, USA
Oral Presentations
Feeling Resentment: Exploring the Role of Empathy in the Social Construction of Victims and Villains
Vito GIANNINI, University of Bergamo, Italy
Empathy and Friendship
Alleweldt ERIKA, Hochschule für Soziale Arbeit und Pädagogik, Germany
Athena between Empathy and Sympathy: A Mythological Analysis of Contemporary Social Relations
Luisa NARDI, Italy
Neuroscientific Approach to Emotion and Cognitive Control - Lega Judgement As a Stage -
Takeshi ASAMIZUYA, Hitotsubashi University, Japan; Shozo OTA, Meiji University, Japan; Junko KATO, The University of Tokyo, Japan
Analysing the Intersectional Dimensions of Emotional Experiences Among Black Educators in the Framework of Educational Work.
Hugo MARANGONI SANTOS, State University of Campinas - Unicamp, Ireland
Emotional Data: Incommensurability and Mediation.
Eduardo Osiel MARTELL HERNÁNDEZ, Mexico
Beauty, Care Work, and Ageing in the Life Experiences of Transwomen in the Colombian Insular Caribbean
Ange LA FURCIA, United Kingdom
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