Rethinking Happiness: Practices, Meanings, and Struggles In Contemporary Society
Rethinking Happiness: Practices, Meanings, and Struggles In Contemporary Society
Abstract Submissions Closed
RC58 Society and Emotions (host committee)
Language: English
Session Type: Oral
Happiness has long been a central aim of human life, historically interpreted in different ways: as the fulfillment of duty and moral order in classical traditions, later as a measurable outcome in economic thought, and more recently as individual achievement within consumerist, ego-centered, and hedonistic cultures. Contemporary social and philosophical debates, however, are increasingly reopening the question of happiness as a relational and social condition, grounded in interdependence, recognition of the other, and the idea that the self is always constituted through relations with others, offering new perspectives for understanding social cohesion. Such debates become even more relevant in the current context of global crisis, in which happiness also emerges as a contested horizon for both individuals and institutions, becoming the object of social struggles, collective vindications, and state interventions. In this sense, the question of what makes individuals happy and how happiness is framed and governed in contemporary society remains open, inviting sociological examination of the practices, meanings, and sensibilities associated with this emotion.
We welcome contributions that reflect on happiness and related emotions as collective and relational processes. Topics include but are not limited to:
- Happiness, solidarity, and collective action
- Happiness as welfare: on state interventions and social policy
- Happiness and social love
- Happiness, hope, and the future of societies
- Consumption and commodification of happiness
- Historical or genealogical accounts on happiness
- Discourses on happiness in contemporary society
- Social knowledge and the measuring of happiness
Session Organizers: