Angry Abolitionists and the Rhetoric of Slavery

Abstract

Cultural sociology is widely acknowledged as one of the most vibrant areas of inquiry in the social sciences across the world today. The Palgrave Macmillan Series in Cultural Sociology is dedicated to the proposition that deep meanings make a profound difference in social life. Culture is not simply the glue that holds society together, a crutch for the weak, or a mystifying ideology that conceals power. Nor is it just practical knowledge, dry schemas, or know how. The series demonstrates how shared and circulating patterns of meaning actively and inescapably penetrate the social. Through codes and myths, narratives and icons, rituals and representations, these culture structures drive human action, inspire social movements, direct and build institutions, and so come to shape history. The series takes its lead from the cultural turn in the humanities, but insists on rigorous social science methods and aims at empirical explanations. Contributions engage in thick interpretations but also account for behavioral outcomes. They develop cultural theory but also deploy middle-range tools to challenge reductionist understandings of how the world actually works. In so doing, the books in this series embody the spirit of cultural sociology as an intellectual enterprise.

‘I always have fun at work’: How ‘remarkable workers’ employ agency and control in order to enjoy themselves

“…Events occur whether or not we experience or interpret them, and these true occurrences are often different from what is observed at the empirical level’ (Fletcher, 2016: 183). For instance, while affective experiences like ‘fun’ are inherently social or relational (and can be analysed as such), they are also actual or substantial, given that they involve a human mind and nervous system (Lamb-Books, 2016, 2017). Finally, there exists the level of the real .…”

The doors that culture opened: Parallels between social movement studies and social psychology

“…Gender of all types is performed through our bodies, just as we express pride in our identities through our bodies—as the case of pride parades illustrates so dramatically (Bruce, 2016). Performance has become a popular lens for seeing the rich embodiments of cultural meanings and their power to persuade others (Alexander, 2010; Juris, 2014; Lamb-Books, 2016).…”