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The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling Paperback – March 31, 2012
| Arlie Russell Hochschild (Author) Find all the books, read about the author, and more. See search results for this author |
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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.
- Print length352 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherUniversity of California Press
- Publication dateMarch 31, 2012
- Dimensions5.5 x 0.9 x 8.25 inches
- ISBN-100520272943
- ISBN-13978-0520272941
- UNSPSC-Code
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"[The] book is topically informative, critical of capitalism in a fresh way, and illuminating on the gender issue in emotions." ― American Journal of Sociology
"This is a finely crafted study of the work and inner lives of airline flight attendants. . . . strongly recommend[ed] to everyone, not just to specialists on emotions." ― Contemporary Sociology
"This is an important work. It is an interesting and provocative introduction to a crucial topi that deserves further research and thought." ― Academy of Management Review
"Hochschild's work is significant for its illumination of new, disturbing, and everyday alienations of consciousness and feeling. Among other things, her line of inquiry suggests a new understanding of the social construction of gender and its relation to capitalism and power." ― Signs
"On the whole, this is a superb book. Hochschild has tackled a heretofore largely ignored dimension of human social existence." ― Social Forces
"The Managed Heart 's impact was—and still is—profound. It has probably done more than any other single publication to ignite and shape the exponential growth of the sociology of emotions—especially emotion is organisations." ― Culture and Organization
"Hochschild [has] developed a language to identify how both feeling and time are transformed into commodities to be used in the service of capital." ― Theory & Event
About the Author
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Product details
- Publisher : University of California Press; Third Edition, Updated with a New Preface (March 31, 2012)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 352 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0520272943
- ISBN-13 : 978-0520272941
- Item Weight : 14.4 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.5 x 0.9 x 8.25 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #113,110 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #300 in General Gender Studies
- #613 in Emotional Mental Health
- #2,266 in Sociology (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Arlie Russell Hochschild’s Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right, now available in paperback from The New Press, addresses the increasingly bitter political divide in America. A finalist for the National Book Award, and New York Times Best Seller, the book is based on five years of immersion reporting among Tea Party loyalists -- now mostly supporters of Donald Trump. Hochschild tries to bridge an “empathy wall” between the two political sides, to explore the “deep story” underlying the right that remains unrecognized by the left. Mark Danner calls the book “a powerful, imaginative, necessary book, arriving not a moment too soon." Robert Reich writes” Anyone who wants to understand modern America should read this captivating book." In its review, Publisher’s Weekly notes: “After evaluating her conclusions and meeting her informants in these pages, it’s hard to disagree that empathy is the best solution to stymied political and social discourse.”
Her 2012 The Outsourced Self: Intimate Life in Market Times, explores the many ways in which the market enters our modern lives and was named one of the best books of the year by Publishers Weekly. Her other books include: So How’s the Family?, The Managed Heart, The Second Shift, The Time Bind, The Commercialization of Intimate Life, The Unexpected Community and the co-edited Global Woman: Nannies, Maids and Sex Workers in the New Economy. In reviewing The Second Shift (reissued in 2012 with a new afterword) Robert Kuttner noted Hochschild’s “subtlety of insights” and “graceful seamless narrative” and called it the “best discussion I have read of what must be the quintessential domestic bind of our time.” Newsweek’s Laura Shapiro described The Time Bind as “groundbreaking.” In awarding Hochschild the Jesse Bernard Award, the American Sociological Association citation observed her “creative genius for framing questions and lines of insight, often condensed into memorable, paradigm-shifting words and phrases.” A retired U.C. Berkeley professor of sociology, she lives with her husband, the writer Adam Hochschild in Berkeley, California.
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A must read for anyone interested in sociology of work and life.
Abdullah Shahid, Cornell University
This book is great for those interested in sociology of emotions, the effects of modernizations and commercialization, and anyone hankering for another reason to not like consumer culture. For me, this book stands as a model for what good sociological writing can be like: insightful, entertaining and inspiring.








