The need for an emotional work survey

Surveys of emotions offer great potential to understand micro-social dynamics and wellbeing not only within small groups, but within nations as a whole. The most commonly reported emotions in surveys – happiness, satisfaction, loneliness, etc - hint at the social experiences of people from different class, ethnic, marital backgrounds, etc. However, such questions are usually generalised to ‘whole of life’ or domain-specific (eg work, family, etc) assessments. They are unable to capture the micro-social dynamics of interaction, power, and status, and consequently lose much of the social interplay of emotions. Many ‘social’ emotions – guilt, shame, anger, envy – are consequently not captured, nor is the considerable work done in managing emotions in different social situations, and the gender context that surrounds this. This paper identifies several emotions commonly ‘missing’ from social surveys and often subject to considerable emotion work particularly amongst women, including anger (Kemper 1990; Holmes 2004), shame (Kemper 1990; Scheff 1991), and jealousy/envy (Clanton 1996). Building on the innovative work of Kahneman and Krueger’s (2006), it also suggests that the most appropriate method for measuring the common emotions and emotion work undertaken in actual social settings is to run a time-use survey with open-ended questions about emotions. Such a survey would ask respondents to report which emotions they felt in their own words, and whether they felt the need to hide or alter these emotions, for a random selection of time-based episodes about any emotions. Such an ‘audit’ of emotions and emotion work in time-based context would provide valuable data to substantiate many of the theories promulgated by sociologists of emotion, and reveal important gender dimensions to emotions within households and families

Indigenous children's multimodal communication of emotions through visual imagery

Billions of images are shared worldwide on the internet via social platforms like Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat and Twitter every few days. The social web and mobile devices make it quicker and easier than ever before for young people to communicate emotions through digital images. There is a need for greater knowledge of how to educate children and young people formally in the sophisticated, multimodal language of emotions. This includes semiotic choices in visual composition, such as gaze, facial expression, posture, framing, actor-goal relations, camera angles, backgrounds, props, lighting, shadows and colour. In particular, enabling Indigenous students to interpret and communicate emotions in contemporary ways is vital because multimodal language skills are central to academic, behavioural and social outcomes. This paper reports original research of urban, Indigenous, upper primary students' visual imagery at school. A series of full-day, digital imagery workshops were conducted over several weeks with 56 students. The photography workshops formed part of a three-year participatory community research project with an Indigenous school in Southeast Queensland, Australia. The archived student images were organised and analysed to identify attitudinal meanings from the appraisal framework, tracing types and subtypes of affect, and their positive and negative forms. The research has significant implications for teaching students how to design high-quality, visual and digital images to evoke a wide range of positive and negative emotions, with particular considerations for Australian Indigenous students

Does social media make us more or less lonely? Depends on how you use it

Humans are more connected to each other than ever, thanks to smartphones, the web and social media. At the same time, loneliness is a huge and growing social problem. Why is this so? Research shows social media use alone can\u27t cure loneliness - but it can be a tool to build and strengthen our genuine connections with others, which are important for a happy life. To understand why this is the case, we need to understand more about loneliness, its harmful impact, and what this has to do with social media

Don\u27t be fooled, loneliness affects men too

A recent article by Jean Hannah Edelstein featured in Fairfax’s Daily Life website examines the impact of loneliness on health. Edelstein is right that loneliness exacerbates ill health and shortens life expectancies. But her claim that women are more severely affected by loneliness is outdated and overlooks the need for real policy reform to address the health implications of loneliness for men

\u27A thousand points of spite\u27 - crowding out the bridging community

Now as in the past, studies of community are lacking in their analysis of structural factors that influence communities. Theoretical analysis of community lacks regard for structure and agency. I suggest that Bourdieu\u27s theory of practice and Honeth\u27s ideas concerning recognition provide mechanism and motivation to address the structure and agency conflict, and inform more sophisticated studies of community. Communities are best served when the practices by which they operate are generalised and inclusive in nature, thus maximising interaction between people of difference and multiplying pathways of recognition. Such communities are characterised by norms of generalised trust and networks of bridging social capital. However, corrosive global structural forces - materialism, inequality and changing household dynamics - pose challenges to such communities. I propose that such forces \u27crowd out\u27 generalised bridging capital in favour of more particularised bonding capital. Bonding, premised on rational-calculation, is easier to maintain then widespread norms of trust when agents are set adrift from structural support. A few societies provide the support - in the form of universal welfare - to counteract the global structural forces. The rest are subject to increasing bonding and particularisation, and a loss of the recognition that stems from maintaining a tolerant, open and trusting community

Should I use my \u27weak\u27 social capital or \u27strong\u27 guanxi? Reviewing and critiquing two theories in the context of Western-Chinese migration

The Author(s) 2020. Social network dynamics are complex in the context of Chinese overseas migration because of the unique dynamics of guanxi, which are distinctly different from \u27Western\u27 social capital. The few migration studies comparing guanxi and social capital suggest that the former largely consists \u27strong ties\u27, while the latter is comprised of \u27weak ties\u27. However, most apply only a cursory comparison of one network facet. We review core literature in the two fields to contrast what each says about network norms, structures and practices. We find that: (i) guanxi is characterised by dynamics of \u27face\u27 and renqing; (ii) guanxi has core and peripheral aspects that grant it bonding and bridging qualities; (iii) weak ties in social capital networks are more beneficial for acquiring non-redundant resources, and for joining civic/voluntary associations; (iv) while strong, face-based guanxi ties better mobilise valuable resources, these ties are rarely transformed into social capital

Poor mothers and lonely single males: the ‘essentially’ excluded women and men of Australia

It is unclear how much gendered social exclusion and disconnection reflects a problem or a preference. Women may prefer market-disengagement despite the risk of exclusion from ‘normal’ social activities through financial incapacity, and men may prefer marketengagement despite the risk of disconnection from informal social networks. This article examines these issues amongst Australian men and women. It finds women, particularly single and low-income mothers, are more socially excluded, and men, particularly single middle-aged men, are the most socially disconnected, after preferences. Future policy should be cognisant of contact preferences, intra-household support dynamics, long work hours and prevailing gender norms

Social capital and welfare: dependency or division? Examining bridging trends by welfare regime, 1981 to 2000

Social capital is a contentious and multifaceted topic. A broad consensus has been reached, however, that norms such as trust, networks of association membership, and practices of volunteering and socialising are essential to its makeup. It is also increasingly recognised that such elements fall into two distinct types of social capital - bonding and bridging. Social structural influences, such as welfare, have an effect on social capital. A common conservative conception is that welfare induces dependency and thereby erodes social capital; this can be called the \u27dependency hypothesis\u27. Roger Patulny suggests this is largely limited to bonding capital only, however. He suggests an alternative, that welfare cutbacks or contingencies upon mutual obligation or status preservation is socially divisive. He calls this the \u27division hypothesis\u27, and it is relevant to the more definitively positive bridging capital. This paper shows trends in bridging social capital in nine OECD countries of differing welfare regime type from 1981 to 2000. It uses data from the most recent versions of the World Values Survey and Multinational Time Use Study. It suggests that welfare regime type, and importantly, welfare regime re-structuring, bears strong relations to national levels of bridging social capital