Angela Jones
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781479842964
- eISBN:
- 9781479829422
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9781479842964.003.0002
- Subject:
- Sociology, Law, Crime and Deviance
Pleasure has been a focal point of both theoretical and empirical work across a wide range of disciplines for millennia. Surprisingly, however, sociology has had very little to say about the ...
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Pleasure has been a focal point of both theoretical and empirical work across a wide range of disciplines for millennia. Surprisingly, however, sociology has had very little to say about the importance of pleasure in shaping social action, the ways that society constructs what pleasure is, and how we experience pleasure. We desperately need a sociological theory of pleasure to unpack the ways that pleasure both motivates human behavior and mediates social interactions. Pleasure refers to infinitely different sets of gratifying social experiences. Pleasure is a social experience controlled by regulatory forces, and the routine sacrifice of pleasure is a hallmark of social life. The sacrifices of pleasure provide structure and order to society and its institutions; yet the sacrifice of pleasure is embedded with power, and in this process, human freedom is limited and people are subjugated. This chapter raises the question, What would it look like for sociologists, generalists, and those individuals in various sociological subfields to place pleasure at the center of their analyses? This chapter offers readers a distinctively sociological theory of pleasure, which lays the groundwork for an entirely new subfield in sociology—the sociology of pleasure.Less
Pleasure has been a focal point of both theoretical and empirical work across a wide range of disciplines for millennia. Surprisingly, however, sociology has had very little to say about the importance of pleasure in shaping social action, the ways that society constructs what pleasure is, and how we experience pleasure. We desperately need a sociological theory of pleasure to unpack the ways that pleasure both motivates human behavior and mediates social interactions. Pleasure refers to infinitely different sets of gratifying social experiences. Pleasure is a social experience controlled by regulatory forces, and the routine sacrifice of pleasure is a hallmark of social life. The sacrifices of pleasure provide structure and order to society and its institutions; yet the sacrifice of pleasure is embedded with power, and in this process, human freedom is limited and people are subjugated. This chapter raises the question, What would it look like for sociologists, generalists, and those individuals in various sociological subfields to place pleasure at the center of their analyses? This chapter offers readers a distinctively sociological theory of pleasure, which lays the groundwork for an entirely new subfield in sociology—the sociology of pleasure.
