So How's the Family?: And Other Essays

by Arlie Russell Hochschild

Overview

In this new collection of thirteen essays, Arlie Russell Hochschild—author of the groundbreaking exploration of emotional labor, The Managed Heart and The Outsourced Self—focuses squarely on the impact of social forces on the emotional side of intimate life.

From the “work” it takes to keep personal life personal, put feeling into work, and empathize with others; to the cultural “blur” between market and home; the effect of a social class gap on family wellbeing; and the movement of care workers around the globe, Hochschild raises deep questions about the modern age. In an eponymous essay, she even points towards a possible future in which a person asking “How’s the family?” hears the proud answer, “Couldn’t be better.”

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780520272286
Publisher:	University of California Press
Publication date:	09/30/2013
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	264
Product dimensions:	8.80(w) x 5.90(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Arlie Hochschild is Professor Emerita of Sociology at UC Berkeley; she is a leading postwar feminist and the author of numerous books, including The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction

THE FEEL OF THINGS
1. Going on Attachment Alert
2. Can Emotional Labor Be Fun?
3. Empathy Maps

FAMILIES, CLASS GAPS, AND TIME
4. So How’s the Family?
5. Time Strategies
6. The Diplomat’s Wife

BOUNDARIES AND BLURS, MARKET AND HOME
7. The Personalized Market and the Marketized Self (with Sarah Garrett)
8. At Home in the Office (with Barrie Thorne)
9. Rent-a-Mom

WOMEN ON THE GLOBAL BACKSTAGE
10. Two-Way Global Traffic in Care
11. Children Left Behind (with S. Uma Devi and Lise Isaksen)
12. The Surrogate’s Womb

Notes
Bibliography
Credits
Index

Editorial Reviews

08/12/2013
In this eloquent collection of 13 essays, noted sociologist Hochschild (The Outsourced Self: Intimate Life in Market Times) links public trends—such as free market capitalism, branding, and globalization—to the intimate world of the family. Exploring the impact of social changes on the family unit's emotional state, she studies "online daters, migrant nannies, commercial surrogate mothers" and other modern phenomena, which serve as catalysts for reflection on changes in public discourse from 1900-2007. Her overriding concern is the ongoing struggle between the demands of the marketplace and the needs of families—how people can strengthen bonds to keep their personal lives personal, and how empathy needs to "cross the barriers of class, race, and gender." She highlights the enormous emotional toll (for both mother and child) on female migrant workers from poor countries who leave their own children behind. Grounded in sociology, Hochschild introduces ideas such as an "emotional commons"—a rich, social ecology—for comprehending how the market of wealthy countries in the "Global North" erodes the social fabric of countries in the Global South and East. The book illuminates the challenges of a deregulated, impersonal global economy and offers suggestions for restoring emotional connections. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

"Via these brief, compassionate and often amusing summaries, the themes presented here add up to an attempt to predict what the future of commercialisation and globalisation holds for the development of our emotional lives." Book of the Week--Stina Lyon & Karen Shook"Times Higher Education" (09/05/2013)

"When Arlie Russell Hochschild asks, "So How's the Family?" she's not inquiring about your partner and kids. She has her sights on something bigger: the American family, even the global one. In this collection of essays, the noted Berkeley sociologist, author of "The Outsourced Self, " delves into ways in which the cultural line between market and home has become increasingly blurred as the social class gap has grown wider. The family, it turns out, is not doing so well worldwide, but Hochschild says there's hope."--Gayle Brandeis"San Francisco Chronicle" (09/06/2013)

From the Publisher

"When Arlie Russell Hochschild asks, "So How's the Family?" she's not inquiring about your partner and kids. She has her sights on something bigger: the American family, even the global one. In this collection of essays, the noted Berkeley sociologist, author of The Outsourced Self, delves into ways in which the cultural line between market and home has become increasingly blurred as the social class gap has grown wider. The family, it turns out, is not doing so well worldwide, but Hochschild says there's hope."

San Francisco Chronicle - Gayle Brandeis

"Via these brief, compassionate and often amusing summaries, the themes presented here add up to an attempt to predict what the future of commercialisation and globalisation holds for the development of our emotional lives." Book of the Week

Times Higher Education - Stina Lyon & Karen Shook