Böcker av Arlie Russell Hochschild

In Strangers in Their Own Land, the renowned sociologist Arlie Hochschild embarks on a thought-provoking journey from her liberal hometown of Berkeley, California, deep into Louisiana bayou countrya stronghold of the conservative right. As she gets to know people who strongly oppose many of the ideas she famously champions, Hochschild nevertheless finds common ground and quickly warms to the people she meetsamong them a Tea Party activist whose town has been swallowed by a sinkhole caused by a drilling accidentpeople whose concerns are actually ones that all Americans share: the desire for community, the embrace of family, and hopes for their children.Strangers in Their Own Land goes beyond the commonplace liberal idea that these are people who have been duped into voting against their own interests. Instead, Hochschild finds lives ripped apart by stagnant wages, a loss of home, an elusive American dreamand political choices and views that make sense in the context of their lives. Hochschild draws on her expert knowledge of the sociology of emotion to help us understand what it feels like to live in "e;red"e; America. Along the way she finds answers to one of the crucial questions of contemporary American politics: why do the people who would seem to benefit most from "e;liberal"e; government intervention abhor the very idea?

In private life, we try to induce or suppress love, envy, and anger through deep acting or "e;emotion work,"e; just as we manage our outer expressions of feeling through surface acting. In trying to bridge a gap between what we feel and what we "e;ought"e; to feel, we take guidance from "e;feeling rules"e; about what is owing to others in a given situation. Based on our private mutual understandings of feeling rules, we make a "e;gift exchange"e; of acts of emotion management. We bow to each other not simply from the waist, but from the heart.But what occurs when emotion work, feeling rules, and the gift of exchange are introduced into the public world of work? In search of the answer, Arlie Russell Hochschild closely examines two groups of public-contact workers: flight attendants and bill collectors. The flight attendant's job is to deliver a service and create further demand for it, to enhance the status of the customer and be "e;nicer than natural."e; The bill collector's job is to collect on the service, and if necessary, to deflate the status of the customer by being "e;nastier than natural."e; Between these extremes, roughly one-third of American men and one-half of American women hold jobs that call for substantial emotional labor. In many of these jobs, they are trained to accept feeling rules and techniques of emotion management that serve the company's commercial purpose.Just as we have seldom recognized or understood emotional labor, we have not appreciated its cost to those who do it for a living. Like a physical laborer who becomes estranged from what he or she makes, an emotional laborer, such as a flight attendant, can become estranged not only from her own expressions of feeling (her smile is not "e;her"e; smile), but also from what she actually feels (her managed friendliness). This estrangement, though a valuable defense against stress, is also an important occupational hazard, because it is through our feelings that we are connected with those around us.On the basis of this book, Hochschild was featured in Key Sociological Thinkers, edited by Rob Stones. This book was also the winner of the Charles Cooley Award in 1983, awarded by the American Sociological Association and received an honorable mention for the C. Wright Mills Award.

In this new collection of thirteen essays, Arlie Russell Hochschild-author of the groundbreaking exploration of emotional labor, The Managed Heart and The Outsourced Self-focuses squarely on the impact of social forces on the emotional side of intimate life.From the "e;work"e; it takes to keep personal life personal, put feeling into work, and empathize with others; to the cultural "e;blur"e; between market and home; the effect of a social class gap on family wellbeing; and the movement of care workers around the globe, Hochschild raises deep questions about the modern age. In an eponymous essay, she even points towards a possible future in which a person asking "e;How's the family?"e; hears the proud answer, "e;Couldn't be better."e;

"An exploration of the "pride paradox" that has given the right's appeals such resonance"--

Gathers some of the author's widely read articles. This book reflects on the complex negotiations we make day to day to juggle the conflicting demands of love and work.