The Age of Grief in the Time of Talk

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract / Description of output

Responding to Charles Tilly's call to map how individuals and groups encounter big structures or large processes, this article is concerned with experiences of one particular social process: the move towards emotional openess. Drawing on a mixed methods study of emotions talk, the article questions this 'en bloc' narrative of social change 'in our own time' (Tilly, 1984). In particular, through analysis of survey data, it highlights the life-stage and cohort effects shaping the experiences of those in their middle years, 'the age of grief'; and through indepth analysis of qualitative interviews, it embeds these effects in particular local contexts and relationships and within a particular historical time, the time of talk. In doing so, it concludes that while Tilly is right to suggest stories about social change do social work, he underestimates the extent to which they also offer crucial insight in to the nature of the social, particularly through the reckoning of relationships and their emotional legacies.
Original languageEnglish
Article number22
Number of pages13
JournalSociological Research Online
Volume14
Issue number5
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2009

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

  • Experiences of Social Processes
  • Emotional Legacies
  • Emotional Culture
  • Mixed Methods

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