Cold Intimacies: The Making of Emotional Capitalism
by Eva Illouz
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Description
It is commonly assumed that capitalism has created an a-emotional world dominated by bureaucratic rationality; that economic behavior conflicts with intimate, authentic relationships; that the public and private spheres are irremediably opposed to each other; and that true love is opposed to calculation and self-interest. Eva Illouz rejects these conventional ideas and argues that the culture of capitalism has fostered an intensely emotional culture in the workplace, in the family, and in show more our own relationship to ourselves. She argues that economic relations have become deeply emotional, while close, intimate relationships have become increasingly defined by economic and political models of bargaining, exchange, and equity. This dual process by which emotional and economic relationships come to define and shape each other is called emotional capitalism. Illouz finds evidence of this process of emotional capitalism in various social sites: self-help literature, women's magazines, talk shows, support groups, and the Internet dating sites. How did this happen? What are the social consequences of the current preoccupation with emotions? How did the public sphere become saturated with the exposure of private life? Why does suffering occupy a central place in contemporary identity? How has emotional capitalism transformed our romantic choices and experiences? Building on and revising the intellectual legacy of critical theory, this book addresses these questions and offers a new interpretation of the reasons why the public and the private, the economic and the emotional spheres have become inextricably intertwined. show lessTags
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so insane and relevant and lucid i love this woman. the psychology + online dating commentary was sooooo satisfying to read. people’s minds r amazing
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Modern Emotions
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Author Information
Eva Illouz is Professor of Sociology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Common Knowledge
- Original title
- Cold Intimacies: The Making of Emotional Capitalism
- People/Characters
- Elton Mayo
- Dedication
- To Elchanan
- First words
- Sociologists have traditionally conceived of modernity in terms of the advent of capitalism, the rise of democratic political institutions, or the moral force of the idea of individualism, but have taken little notice of the ... (show all)fact that, along with the familiar concepts of surplus value, exploitation, rationalization, disenchantment, or division of labor, most grand sociological accounts of modernity contained, in a minor key, another story: namely descriptions or accounts of the advent of modernity in terms of emotions.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Fantasies have never been as abundant and multiple in a culture which incessantly engineers them yet they may have become sterile because they are becoming disconnected from reality, and increasingly organized within the hyperrational world of choice and information about the market.
- Blurbers
- Gross, Larry; Zelizer, Viviana A.
Classifications
- Genres
- Nonfiction, Sociology, Economics, General Nonfiction
- DDC/MDS
- 306.342 — Social sciences Social sciences, sociology & anthropology Culture and institutions Economic institutions Systems of production and exchange Capitalism (Free enterprise)
- LCC
- HB501 — Social sciences Economic theory. Demography Economic theory. Demography Capital. Capitalism
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 115
- Popularity
- 281,723
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (3.57)
- Languages
- English, Italian, Slovenian, Spanish
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 7
- ASINs
- 1
