Full Description
This volume explores the nature of nostalgia as an important emotion in contemporary society and social theory. Situated between the 'sociology of emotions' and 'nostalgia studies', it considers the reasons for which nostalgia appears to be becoming an increasingly significant and debated emotion in late-modern culture. With chapters offering studies of nostalgia at micro-, meso- and macro-levels of society, it offers insights into the rise to prominence of nostalgia and the attendant consequences. Thematically organised and examining the role of nostalgia on an individual level - in the lives of concrete individuals - as well as analysing its function on a more historical social level as a collective and culturally shared emotion, Nostalgia Now brings together the latest empirical and theoretical work on an important contemporary emotion and proposes new agendas for research. As such, it will appeal to scholars of sociology, social theory, psychology and cultural studies with interests in the emotions.
Contents
Introduction: in times of nostalgia: the brave new world of a grand old emotion Part 1: Conceptual and theoretical perspectives on nostalgia 1. Nostalgia: the paradoxical bittersweet emotion 2. The psychology of nostalgia: delineating the emotion's nature and functions 3. Future imaginings: nostalgia for unrealized possible selves 4. Retrotopia rising: the topics of utopia, retrotopia and nostalgia in the sociology of Zygmunt Bauman Part 2: Memory, politics and social critique in a mediatised era 5. Dangerous memories: nostalgia and the historical sublime 6. The dilemmas of radical nostalgia: acknowledging the power of the past in the politics of the Left 7. The political staging of nostalgia: neo-Ottomanism in contemporary Turkey 8. The future of nostalgia is inevitable: reflections on mediated nostalgia Part 3: Consumerism, migration and everyday life 9. The dark side of nostalgic bonds: moral motivators of consumer identities, decisions and behaviours 10. Transmigratory nostalgia: sentimentality and everyday life on the Japan Exchange and Teaching programme 11. Living in nostalgia: exploring expatriate experiences of everyday nostalgia in Pattaya
