Emotion at Work: Between Alienation and Resistance

This presentation endeavors to utilize the concept of emotion in an heuristic and sociological manner in order to investigate the subjective link we have with work. More specifically, we will use it as a means to grasp not only the suffering and alienation that are associated with work, but also the pleasure that can intervene to ameliorate work-related pathologies. Furthermore, if we view emotions as a link to the self as well as to others and to the world, it becomes possible for an investigation of emotions associated with work to reveal how relationships to work can point to forms of resistance. It is also necessary in this regard to take into account the fact that the concept of emotion enables us to rethink the classical oppositions between rationality and affect, nature and culture, and masculinity and femininity. In addition, what Rimé (2006) has written about the social elements of emotion from a psychological point of view can be developed from a sociological and critical perspective. Finally, the concept of emotion is subversive in a manner that is analogous to the way in which care theory is subversive, which Caroll Gilligan (2013) has demonstrated. This is particularly the case at the work place, which is characterized by control and self-control. The discussion will thus seek to reveal how the concept of emotion not only is heuristic in character, but also possesses a subversive and critical force.