Social Justice and Emotions

Social justice scholars tend to show that individuals mobilize a plurality of rules and/or principles to judge fairness: equality, merit, rights, needs, procedures or results. Yet, it is difficult to understand the experience of fairness without acknowledging the role of emotions. The sociology of emotions explore the way in which emotions are shaped by social structures and institutions and how they circulate as a force for both social control or social transformation. Integrating the sociological literature on social justice and the literature of emotions has the potential to bring important insights that can further our understanding in the feeling of injustice. The aim of this session is to explore the place and role of emotions in the social experience of (un)fairness. Papers in any sociological subfield (work, education, discriminations, social movements) are most welcome. Some of the questions which contributors could explore : How emotions mediate the relationship between perceptions of fairness and individual well-being? To what extent class, gender, age and ethnicity influence the emotional responsiveness to social injustice? How ideologies, social norms, or cultural narratives shape the emotional reactions to perceptions of unfairness? How self-management strategies are mobilized to reduce the deleterious effects of negative emotions? Under which conditions can these emotions be collectivized in the form of social movements against certain types of injustice? Finally and more broadly, papers are invited to reflect on how these emotions can serve as leverage for different forms of institutional, social or political resistance, whether at an individual or collective level.