The financial crisis that started in 2007 is a concern for the world. Some countries are in depression and governments are desperately trying to find solutions. In the absence of thorough debate on the emotions of money, bitter disputes, hatred and ‘moralizing’ can be misunderstood. New Perspectives on Emotions in Finance carefully considers emotions often left unacknowledged, in order to explain the socially useful versus de-civilising, destructive, nature of money. This book offers an understanding of money that includes the possible civilising sentiments. This interdisciplinary volume examines what is seemingly an uncontrollable, fragile world of finance and explains the ‘panics’ of traders and ‘immoral panics’ in banking, ‘confidence’ of government and commercial decision makers, ‘shame’ or ‘cynicism’ of investors and asymmetries of ‘impersonal trust’ between finance corporations and their many publics. Money is shown to rely on this abstract trust or ‘faith’, but such motivations are in crisis with ‘angry’ conflicts over the ‘power of disposition’. Restraining influences – on ‘uncivilised emotions’ and rule breaking – need democratic consensus, due to enduring national differences in economic ‘sentiments’ even in ostensibly similar countries. Promising ideas for global reform are assessed from these cautionary interpretations. Instead of one ‘correct’ vision, sociologists in this book argue that corporations and global dependencies are driven by fears and normless sentiments which foster betrayal. This book is not about individuals, but habitus and market crudities. Human ‘nature’ or ‘greed’ cannot describe banks, which do not ‘feel’ because their motivations are not from personal psyches but organisational pressures, and are liable to switch under money’s inevitable uncertainties. This more inclusive social science studies emotions as a crucial factor among others, to expand the informed public debate among policy makers, bankers, academics, students and the public.

Publisher Description

Tuckett argues that most economists' explanations of the financial crisis miss its essence; they ignore critical components of human psychology. He offers a deeper understanding of financial market behaviour and investment processes by recognizing the role played by unconscious needs and fears in all investment activity.

This book investigates collective emotions in international politics, with examples from 9/11 and World War II to the Rwandan genocide.

Handbook of the Sociology of Emotions Volume II presents all new chapters in the ever developing area of the sociology of emotions. The volume is divided into two sections: Theoretical Perspectives and Social Arenas of Emotions. It reviews major sociological theories on emotions, which include evolutionary theory, identity theory, affect control theory, social exchange theory, ritual theory, and cultural theory among others. Social arenas where emotions are examined include, but are not limited to, the economy and the workplace, the family, mental health, crime, sports, technology, social movements and the field of science. All the chapters review the major theories and research in the area and each chapter ends with some discussion of directions for future research. The Sociology of Emotions is a fast growing and vital field in the broad discipline of Sociology. This volume II follows the Handbook of the Sociology of Emotions which was first published in 2006. In 2008, this first handbook received the “Outstanding Recent Contribution” in the Emotions Section of the American Sociological Association. With contributions from leading scholars from different areas in the discipline, such as neurosociology, culture, economics, mental health, gender, social movements, discussing state-of-art theory and research on emotions in sociology this volume will generate wider appeal to the sociological community.

Gathering scholars from different disciplines, this book is the first on how to study emotions using sociological, historical, linguistic, anthropological, psychological, cultural, and mixed approaches. Bringing together the emerging lines of inquiry, it lays foundations for an overdue methodological debate. The volume offers entrancing short essays, richly illustrated with examples and anecdotes, that provide basic knowledge about how to pursue emotions in texts, interviews, observations, spoken language, visuals, historical documents, and surveys. The contributors are respectful of those being researched and are mindful of the effects of their own feelings on the conclusions. The book thus touches upon the ethics of research in vivid first person accounts. Methods are notoriously difficult to teach—this collection fills the gap between dry methods books and students’ need to know more about the actual research practice.

From acclaimed economists George Akerlof and Robert Shiller, the case for why government is needed to restore confidence in the economy The global financial crisis has made it painfully clear that powerful psychological forces are imperiling the wealth of nations today. From blind faith in ever-rising housing prices to plummeting confidence in capital markets, "animal spirits" are driving financial events worldwide. In this book, acclaimed economists George Akerlof and Robert Shiller challenge the economic wisdom that got us into this mess, and put forward a bold new vision that will transform economics and restore prosperity. Akerlof and Shiller reassert the necessity of an active government role in economic policymaking by recovering the idea of animal spirits, a term John Maynard Keynes used to describe the gloom and despondence that led to the Great Depression and the changing psychology that accompanied recovery. Like Keynes, Akerlof and Shiller know that managing these animal spirits requires the steady hand of government—simply allowing markets to work won't do it. In rebuilding the case for a more robust, behaviorally informed Keynesianism, they detail the most pervasive effects of animal spirits in contemporary economic life—such as confidence, fear, bad faith, corruption, a concern for fairness, and the stories we tell ourselves about our economic fortunes—and show how Reaganomics, Thatcherism, and the rational expectations revolution failed to account for them. Animal Spirits offers a road map for reversing the financial misfortunes besetting us today. Read it and learn how leaders can channel animal spirits—the powerful forces of human psychology that are afoot in the world economy today. In a new preface, they describe why our economic troubles may linger for some time—unless we are prepared to take further, decisive action.

Prompted by the 'affective turn' within the entire spectrum of the social sciences, this books brings together the twin disciplines of political psychology and the political sociology of emotions to explore the complex relationship between politics and emotion at both the mass and individual level with special focus on cases of political tension.

Assesses central bank policies towards capitalist money creation and war finance against inflationary and deflationary class strengths in specific democracies.