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13 results

Dystopian Emotions
  • Emotional Landscapes and Dark Futures
  • Edited by Jordan McKenzie, Roger Patulny
  • Published by:
    Bristol University Press
    Published online:
    13 May 2022
    Print publication:
    13 December 2021
  • This edited collection offers an original investigation of the changing landscape of emotion in dark and uncertain times. Challenging the assumption that emotional experiences are purely personal, the authors showcase how they relate to cultural, economic and political conditions.

  • 4 - Mass Emotional Events: Rethinking Emotional Contagions after COVID-19

  • Edited by Jordan McKenzie, University of Wollongong, Australia, Roger Patulny, University of Wollongong, Australia
  • Book:
    Dystopian Emotions
    Published by:
    Bristol University Press
    Published online:
    13 May 2022
    Print publication:
    13 December 2021, pp 71-88

  • Summary

    Introduction

    Recent work on theories of collective emotions has recognized emotions as phenomena that spread between individuals and groups to form collective emotional moods, landscapes and climates (Bar-Tal et al, 2007; Von Scheve and Salmela, 2014). Nevertheless, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused sudden and dramatic shifts in social interaction that warrants a reimagining of emotional contagions. The collective hopes and anxieties of those living through the pandemic indicate the development of a ‘new normal’ that highlights the need to reconsider existing theories. In particular, the rapid change in collective emotions, spreading in an almost ‘viral’ manner, warrants that we pay new attention to these concepts. The idea that emotions are created and shared collectively is not new. The spread of feelings to create common, collective emotional experiences and cultures is captured in existing theories of emotional contagion (Von Scheve and Ismer, 2013). Emerging from early theories about crowd behaviour from Gustave Le Bon (1895), they suggest that emotions spread physically at the micro-social level through a process of mimicking and synchronizing expressions, vocalization, postures and movements, creating a feedback loop that homogenizes into a recognizable emotion shared by a group of people (Hatfield et al, 1994). More recent studies have found this micro-level phenomenon can occur online, between individuals interacting through bounded digital social media networks (Underwood and Olson, 2019).

    However, recent events demonstrate the power of macro-events to influence and spread emotions widely across whole societies and nations. COVID-19 has resulted in new attention, focus and emotional valence being given to rolling government press releases and the 24-hour news cycle, amplified and hastened by social media. In this new emotional landscape, singular examples of emotional contagions (for example panic buying and grocery shortages, and anxiety manifest from self-isolation regulations, travel-bans, and school closures) are experienced by millions of people simultaneously. In light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, this chapter rethinks the ways that emotional contagions develop and function on a mass scale. We use the term ‘mass emotional event’ to describe how the impacts of emotional contagion accumulate across the micro, meso and macro levels of society, and take particular forms at the national and international levels. The chapter will evaluate existing theories of emotional landscapes and emotional contagions before setting out a reimagined approach in the concept of mass emotional events.

  • Conclusion: A Critical Mass of Emotions – Reflexivity, Loneliness and Hope?

  • Edited by Jordan McKenzie, University of Wollongong, Australia, Roger Patulny, University of Wollongong, Australia
  • Book:
    Dystopian Emotions
    Published by:
    Bristol University Press
    Published online:
    13 May 2022
    Print publication:
    13 December 2021, pp 176-183

  • Summary

    Introduction

    It seems opportune to end this book reflecting on the media see-sawing between utopian and dystopian depictions towards the end of the tumultuous year which was 2020. One brief snippet says much: in the week in which this chapter was drafted, the media was dominated by images of people representing half the population of the US dancing on the streets in masks in a great outpouring celebration of the downfall of the ‘autocrat’ Donald Trump. Meanwhile, the other half raced to fill the feed of social media and conservative websites with protests about election fraud, and claims that even darker times lay ahead under the ‘dictatorship of the deep state’; a few short weeks after this chapter was drafted, some of their number stormed and occupied the US Capitol Building. The emotional maelstrom in which half raged, laughed and cried was brewed in the cauldron of the COVID-19 pandemic that has (so far) claimed over 700,000 lives in the US alone, with numbers still climbing.

    In these extraordinary times, utopian and dystopian sentiments seem to have morphed into powerful preoccupations imbuing our thoughts and feelings, and undermining any capacity for reasoned public debate. A considered scepticism about possible futures is being replaced by a powerful bitter-sweet longing and hope for utopia combined with a genuine fear of a coming dystopia. Are we witnessing the triumph or the end of ambivalence (Burkitt, 2002)? Will fatigue with post-modern complexities and half-measures and an escalation in our collective desire to break through lead to a new, clearer, simpler way of feeling? Or to a Simmelian desire for blase and deadening of emotional motivation altogether?

    Have we reached a critical mass of emotions?

    What seems most apparent to us is that new, powerful and often simplified emotional and affective sentiments have been raised up as key explanators of much that seems enormously right (utopian) and wrong (dystopian) in contemporary public discourse. Some studies and discourses refer to the role of specific emotions in key situations, for example, anger in US politics (Hochschild, 2016), distress over climate change (Albrecht et al, 2007) or empathy and shame in the ongoing impacts and reactions to colonization (Hutchison, 2014). Others refer to the role of affect in describing numerous cultural and political processes, as part of the affective turn in cultural sociology (Ahmed, 2004).

  • Introduction: The Feeling of Dystopia

  • Edited by Jordan McKenzie, University of Wollongong, Australia, Roger Patulny, University of Wollongong, Australia
  • Book:
    Dystopian Emotions
    Published by:
    Bristol University Press
    Published online:
    13 May 2022
    Print publication:
    13 December 2021, pp 1-15

  • Summary

    As a PhD student I remember hearing a senior professor insist that sociologists should wait at least 20 years before commenting on current events. He claimed that sociological knowledge could only be reliably generated when sufficient time had passed for reflection, and for events to become a part of history. Furthermore, he argued that any endeavour to predict or preempt the future was a reckless and calamitous venture that sank below the standards of real academic work. While I have a lot of time for historical sociology, the editors of this collection do not believe that the advice of this professor should be taken so literally. There is perhaps no task more important for sociologists than making sense of the present and understanding the implications of what we find for the future. While no book can claim to be able to predict future events with any degree of certainty, sociology and its related disciplines need to look forward, and try to seriously engage with the possible worlds that lie ahead.

    This book will specifically investigate the emotional consequences of perceived futures for individuals living in the present, and the open up new discourses about how people might feel in the future. It should be uncontroversial for sociologists and social researchers to investigate the emotional consequences of the past, present and future. Furthermore, there is also a need for social researchers to think seriously about how people might feel differently in the future. As George Herbert Mead (1932, p. 12) notes, insofar as human beings can reconstruct history and imagine the world to come, ‘the past … is as hypothetical as the future’. More recently, Barbara Adam and Chris Groves have described ‘present futures’ and ‘future presents’ to distinguish between the futures that are already underway in the present, and the current perception of presents that are yet to come. Adam and Groves (2007, p. 36) conclude that in regard to the latter, ‘the scientific mode of inquiry has no tools with which to engage with future presents’.

    Though there is much that we do not know about the future, social researchers need to develop ways to discuss future presents without becoming futurists or determinists.

  • 01 Adolescent and Young Adult Central Nervous System Tumour Survivors: Documentation of late-effects risks and screening recommendations in British Columbia, Canada

  • A. Fuchsia Howard, Jordan Tran, Avril Ullett, Michael McKenzie, Karen Goddard
  • Journal:
    Canadian Journal of Neurological Sciences / Volume 45 / Issue S3 / June 2018
    Published online by Cambridge University Press:
    27 July 2018, p. S1
    • Article
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  • Survivors of adolescent and young adult (AYA) central nervous system (CNS) neoplasms are at risk for late effects (LE) - treatment-related health problems occurring more than 5 years after therapy). Since, in Canada, AYA survivors are usually followed in the community, information must be conveyed to primary care providers to guide risk-based follow-up care. Objective: To assess documentation of LE risks and screening recommendations (SR) in medical records of AYA CNS tumor survivors treated with radiation therapy. Methods: The medical records of all patients diagnosed with a CNS neoplasm (benign or malignant) at ages 15-39 years, treated between 1985 and 2010 in the province of British Columbia, surviving >5 years and discharged to the community were assessed. Documentation of LE and SR were extracted, and analyzed descriptively. Results: Among 132 survivors (52% female), treated with radiation therapy (95% partial brain, 10% craniospinal, 8% partial spine, and 4% whole brain) and chemotherapy (17%), 19% of charts included no documentation of LE risks, 26% included only non-specific documentation, and 55% had minimal documentation (1 or 2 LE). Documentation of at least one specific LE increased from 24% in 1980-1989, to 54% in 1990-1999, to 86% in 2000 – 2010. Based on treatment information, all survivors were at high-risk for LE, such as radiation induced neoplasm, meningioma and cerebrovascular events. Yet, SR were documented in only 25% of charts. Conclusions: The documentation of LE risks and screening recommendations has been limited, highlighting the need to improve written communication with primary care providers.

  • ASSOCIATION BETWEEN SINGLE-PARENT FAMILY STRUCTURE AND AGE OF SEXUAL DEBUT AMONG YOUNG PERSONS IN JAMAICA

  • Daniel C. Oshi, Jordan Mckenzie, Martin Baxter, Royelle Robinson, Stephan Neil, Tayla Greene, Wayne Wright, Jeorghino Lodge
  • Journal:
    Journal of Biosocial Science / Volume 51 / Issue 2 / March 2019
    Published online by Cambridge University Press:
    26 February 2018, pp. 177-187

  • There is a high and increasing proportion of single-parent families in Jamaica. This has raised concerns about the potential impact of single-parent families on the social, cognitive and behavioural development of children, including their sexual relationships. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between being raised in a single-parent family and age of sexual debut among young people in Jamaica. The study was cross-sectional in design, and based on a multi-stage sampling procedure. The study was conducted in July/September 2016. The study sample comprised 233 respondents (110 males and 123 females) aged from 18 to 35 years (mean 26.37 years; SD 5.46). Respondents completed a self-administered questionnaire with questions on socio-demographic characteristics, family structure, sexual debut and current sexual behaviour. Ninety-seven (41.7%) respondents grew up in single-parent families. A total of 201 (86.3%) had had sex (102 males and 99 females). Their mean age of sexual debut was 15.51 years (SD 3.41). Sixty-five (32.3%) had early sexual debut (<16 years). Respondents from single-parent families were more likely to have had early sexual debut (56.9%; n=37) compared with those from two-parent families (43.1%, n=28; p=0.004). Only 44.6% (n=29) of those who experienced early sexual debut used a condom during their first sexual encounter compared with 73% (n=100) of those who had a later sexual debut (≥16 years; p=<0.001). A single-father family structure was a significant predictor of early sexual debut (AOR 5.5; 95%CI: 1.1–25.8). The study found a significant association between single-parent family structure and age of sexual debut.

  • The Realistic Reporting of With-Profits Business. Reference Paper for the Discussion

  • D. J. P. Hare, G. Craske, J. R. Crispin, A. J. Desai, D. W. Dullaway, M. A. Earnshaw, R. Frankland, G. A. Jordan, M. G. Kerr, G. M. Manley, J. L. McKenzie, R. A. Rae, M. C. Saker
  • Journal:
    British Actuarial Journal / Volume 10 / Issue 2 / 01 June 2004
    Published online by Cambridge University Press:
    10 June 2011, pp. 223-293

  • This paper was written at the request of the Life Research Committee of the United Kingdom Actuarial Profession's Life Board. It concerns the valuation of U.K. with-profits business, with particular attention to the market-consistent ‘realistic reporting’ basis currently being used in the U.K. by the regulator, the Financial Services Authority (FSA). The paper surveys recent regulatory activity concerning the development and introduction of the new valuation approach, and puts it into the context of a survey of alternative methodologies, both deterministic and stochastic. The particular issues arising when considering prudential solvency are discussed, and various approaches are reviewed and compared with market consistent methods. Numerical examples are given, which demonstrate potential issues (regarding comparability and consistency) with the FSA's proposed approach — in particular the sensitivity of results to model calibration. The authors support the FSA's move to a stochastically-based framework for solvency measurement, but highlight some issues which need to be taken into account.