Passionate Sociology

What is passionate sociology? Does sociology merit passion? Too often the subject is taught as a dry and detached system of thought and practice. Passion is often regarded as something to avoid or to treat with inherent suspicion; however, now there is a book that frankly argues for passion as a necessity in sociology. This groundbreaking volume is not simply about passionate sociology, it demonstrates passionate sociology. By asking questions about sociology and its relation to passion, the authors seek to revitalize the subject. Passionate Sociology deliberately sets out to excite students with an account of what sociology can achieve to help them understand their own lives and the social conditions of our own time. It introduces and develops a number of major themes including identity, knowledge, metaphor, magic desire, power, everyday life, and cultural mediation. The authors argue that students should analyze these themes through practices of reading, writing, speaking, learning, storytelling, performing, and organizing. They also aim to introduce students to the subject by a controlled engagement with practical sociological ideas and ways of seeing. In this way they hope that readers will participate in the creative possibilities of sociology. Well-informed, concise, and designed for the needs of students, Passionate Sociology presents a notable shift in introducing sociology to newcomers. It offers a major challenge to established textbooks and points to inspiring new ways of approaching the subject. "The text is a wonderful demystification of sociology; students can learn an enormous amount from it. What Ann Game and Andrew Metcalfe want to do is to put the passion back into sociology and thus emancipate the subject and its pleasures from those who would be its high priests. . . . Wonderful!" --Keith Tester, Reader in Sociology, Portsmouth University