Part I: Critical perspectives on emotions: Chapter 1: The sociology of emotion as a way of seeing.

This chapter argues that whilst a sociological approach to emotions involves going beyond the biological to the social, cultural and ideological realms, this does not mean ignoring or leaving out the physiological substrate altogether. In taking this position, the author revisits her earlier work on emotion management, using love as an example. In doing so, she returns to central concepts such as feeling rules, status shields, deep and surface acting, which have profoundly influenced the nature and development of the sociology of emotions over the last two decades. It is on this basis that she is able to fashion her sociological approach to emotions as a new way of seeing the world and our gendered modes of emotionally embodied being within it. Whatever the method of emotion management, the emotions managed are not independent of our management of them. Culture impinges at many points, at the point of recognizing a feeling, at labelling a feeling, at appraising a feeling, at managing a feeling and expressing a feeling. Thus, an emotional strategy useful in defending oneself against the paradox of modern love, provides not simply an emotional armour, but, to some degree, the feelings that are armoured.