The emotional face and the sociology of instability 1st World Congress on Facial Expression of Emotion António Pedro Dores (Oct. 2014)

No faces in society

Faces out of society

WHAT FOR DO YOU NEED SOCIOLOGY HERE?

Argument There is a problem with social sciences disciplines: they do not communicate to each other (and beyond) The problem´s name – centripetal policy There is the time to reverse it – we need centrifugal social sciences policies

Two parts I - What are sciences useful for? II – A sociological contribution for emotions conceptualization

Cartesian social utopia society psycho-biology deity - norms God face faces down People´s multiple faces face up communities´s faces face up Political face faces down

Is there society at all? “There is no such thing as society!” Mrs. Thatcher What is the use of sociology (and humanities, and social sciences)? Is not it economics enough? Weak forces that happens to reveal strength?

Social sciences division Socio-economics Psychology – techno-sciences Political science – International relations

Damasio´s critique The thinking habit of conceive unity on tissues should be compatible with the autonomy of cells

Social critique to biology Tissues and organs struggle for life as much as societies do. “O povo unido jamais será vencido” “United, no one ever defeat us” Difficult it is, life depends on unity. Still, one lives. How it happens?

Physics critique on sociology Instable non living societal organizations of matter (cybernetics; artificial intelligence ) Be it micro, meso or cosmic dimensions (weak are strong)

What is social instability? 1 st ( weak ) consciousness built by instability find it self hoping for ( strong ) stability 2 nd to face auto instability claims for a lot of energy 3 rd saving self energy can spend a lot of other´s energy ( from society, slaves, nature ) 4 th to face instability becomed a evolutio- nary cognitive need ( global warming; w(a)r-rying )

What do we need? Weak and strong energy from cosmos: a)strong inspiration – to protect us from ourselves; b)weak effort – to claim from out of the humans whatever energy is needed to organize better life. We need moral-ecological inspiration for our sciences. Should we look for it?

Out of centripetal policy Along with hipper specialization draw by state-corporate labeling interests, one need to develop a transversal treadmill across sciences and humanities for social sciences survival sake That is the time for centrifugal sciences and crossing concepts (such as weak and strong; emotions and bonds)

Sciences Social sciences Weak force (inner atoms) Emotions (secret and changing forces) Agents Strong force (matter centrifuging) Bonds (power and conservative forces) Structures

II Part Social sciences contributions Thomas Scheff definition of social emotion: 1.Bodies feel deep inside threatens to the social bonds 2.Bodies produce shame emotions to deal with social threats to their social bonds

Enlargement of the concept SocietiesPre-modernModern Main emotion FearShame DefinitionRisk for life ( body reproduction ) Risk for social bond (status)

Emotions signal the need for social change Freezing individual fear Freezing individual shame

Modes of behavior: civilized and violent PoliticsCulture EconomicsSociety Shame CapitalismIndustrialism WarSocial Control (security) Fear Communi- cation Physical Action

Social discrimination Who is struggling for life? Who can communicate?

The nature of human sociability Done Said Being Well being Fear Shame of breaking the law of social isolation shame and fear of bad shape (death)

Sociology of instability Different social situations claim for different faces on the same person (characters) Historical situations claim for different faces of the same society (norms) Crossing norms and characters regarding different situations make our lives instable: that´s the source of all emotions

The end

Dinâmicas Sociais e Modernização Justiça social Exclusão Controlo reclamação direitos fechamento racionalização criminalização revolução institucionalização fechamento institucionalização racionalização criminalização revolução reclamação direitos ciclo de solidariedadeciclo emancipatório