The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling

Arlie Russell Hochschild

Published by University of California Press 2012

The Managed Heart

Commercialization of Human Feeling

Arlie Russell Hochschild

https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520951853

Overview
Contents

About this book

In private life, we try to induce or suppress love, envy, and anger through deep acting or "emotion work," 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 "ought" to feel, we take guidance from "feeling rules" about what is owing to others in a given situation. Based on our private mutual understandings of feeling rules, we make a "gift exchange" 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 "nicer than natural." The bill collector’s job is to collect on the service, and if necessary, to deflate the status of the customer by being "nastier than natural." 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 "her" 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.

Author / Editor information

Hochschild Arlie Russell :

Arlie Russell Hochschild is a Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley. She is the author of three New York Times Book Review Notable Books of the Year, including The Second Shift, The Managed Heart, and The Time Bind. She has received numerous awards and grants ranging from Fulbright and Guggenheim Fellowships to a three-year research grant from the National Institute of Public Health. Her articles have appeared in Harper’s, Mother Jones, and The New York Times Magazine, among others. She lives in San Francisco with her husband, the writer Adam Hochschild; they have two sons

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Preface to the 2012 Edition Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Preface to the First Edition Publicly Available Download PDF	xvii
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	xix
PART ONE. PRIVATE LIFE
1. Exploring the Managed Heart Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	3
2. Feeling as Clue Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	24
3. Managing Feeling Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	35
4. Feeling Rules Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	56
5. Paying Respects with Feeling: The Gift Exchange Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	76
PART TWO. PUBLIC LIFE
6. Feeling Management: From Private to Commercial Uses Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	89
7. Between the Toe and the Heel: Jobs and Emotional Labor Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	137
8. Gender, Status, and Feeling Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	162
9. The Search for Authenticity Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	185
Afterword to the Twentieth Anniversary Edition Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	199
Appendixes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	209
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	253
Bibliography to the Twentieth Anniversary Edition Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	277
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	287
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	317

Language: English
Publisher: University of California Press
Pages
- Main content: 352

eBook

Published: March 31, 2012
ISBN: 9780520951853