A Sociology of Kindness as Everyday Enchantment

A sociological investigation of how and why the idea of kindness has come to take a hold in many contemporary English-speaking societies. A sociology of kindness as everyday enchantment explores the contemporary preoccupation with ‘random acts of kindness’ and the broader concept of kindness. It questions whether this focus challenges the logic of capitalism or reinforces it, examining the commodification of emotion in our everyday lives. By introducing and mapping the contours of an emergent kindness industry, the author uses empirical research and theoretical resources from cultural sociology and the sociology of emotions and relationships to argue for a critical sociological engagement with the ‘prosocial’ that does justice to its profound ambivalence. In the case of kindness, this involves understanding both the regulatory nature of the enchantment sold by a kindness industry and the problem-solving potential of the enchantment of kindness in the everyday. It helps address contemporary feelings of disconnection, shame, anxiety and hopelessness, and facilitates the possibility of making life materially liveable. The book argues that the idea of kindness can be thought of as an example of a ‘good story’ – a captivating narrative about goodness that also evokes anxieties that it may turn out to be nothing more than a story. These stories embody both hope and fear, resonating deeply in contemporary society. Through investigating such stories, Brownlie exposes the complicated relationship between feeling, doing and telling good. Ultimately, she argues that the ‘good story’ of kindness belongs in the space of the broken middle, where its ambivalences are to be laboured with, rather than resolved. This book asks us to consider how and why the notion of random acts of kindness and the idea of kindness more generally have come to take a hold in many contemporary English-speaking societies. By introducing and mapping the contours of an emergent kindness industry, marshalling empirical research on contemporary framings of everyday kindness and theoretical resources from cultural sociology to the sociology of emotions and relationships, Brownlie makes the case for a critical sociological engagement with the idea of kindness. In doing so, she argues for kindness to be seen as a form of everyday enchantment – one that, like all enchantments, is ultimately ambivalent.

Pagina's: 224, Hardcover, Manchester University Press