ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with the commonsense notion of awkwardness as an individual emotional expression. Drawing on the sociology of emotions (especially Hochschild's work), the authors argue, however, that emotions are clues to how we are thinking or to how others are thinking. Emotions consist of subjective feelings and emotional expressions, and are both biological and individual as well as social and collective. Hence, people feel and express emotions as part of emotion cultures, consisting of (1) norms, (2) beliefs, and (3) vocabularies. Feeling rules and expression rules set out the emotional norms. Failing to meet these norms can make social interactions awkward. Moreover, emotional beliefs are learned through socialization, which can help to prevent such awkward interactions. Finally, emotion vocabularies outline categories of meaning that are used to describe our emotional experiences. Hence, emotions are not ineffable but articulated through emotion vocabularies. Awkwardness has been made easily accessible as an emotion label by popular culture. Finally, emotions do not just happen but are managed. Emotion work refers to the act of trying to change the extent, direction, and duration of an emotion. Therefore, emotional deviance is often a source of awkwardness.
