Jennifer Mason is Professor of Sociology at the University of Manchester
Affinities is a work of profound originality showing us what is to be gained from finding ways to become attuned to the effervescent, atmospheric aspects of social life. Beyond sociological cliches and comfortable academic conventions, this beautiful book is proof that sociology can be magical if we have the courage to believe in that possibility. Les Back, Goldsmiths, University of London Jennifer Mason has created a beguiling example of the contemporary sociological imagination at work. She shifts boundaries to incorporate fresh fields of vision, giving new depth to sociological enquiry. Unquestionably a delightful work of perceptive scholarship. Carol Smart, Professor Emerita, University of Manchester This book is a guide for retraining social science's rationalistic or categorical version of reality into a more worldly realism of potencies, energies and sentience. It conjures a world in which affinities matter as a way of conceptualizing how to live. Kathleen Stewart, The University of Texas at Austin