"This book unveils the concept of social love as a kind of ""Karst River"" that flows through the history of sociology, reassessing it as a form criticism by people in everyday life.
Adopting an interdisciplinary perspective, this book offers both theoretical and empirical reflections on social love. It shows that love is not only central to the human experience, but that it can also help to interpret and intervene in social problems such as climate change, poverty, xenophobia, and the (post-)Covid crisis, recognizing people as actors in social change. It explores the idea of love as a key element in the promotion of solidarity and recognition in today’s plural and unequal societies.
Based on empirical research on social love conducted through both qualitative and quantitative methods, especially in Europe and Latin America, this book explores the social dimension of love. Providing overviews on key questions and studies on current issues, the book is essential reference and resource for researchers, students, social workers, and professionals in social sciences, social philosophy, anthropology, social psychology, sociology of emotions and postmodern literature."
Introduction Part I: Overview Insight 1 When reality challenges sociological imagination: what social love is in a critical perspective SILVIA CATALDI AND GENNARO IORIO 2 Imagining on the shoulders of giants: a historical selection on the social thought on love SILVIA CATALDI Evidence 3 For an empirical study of social love: epistemological and methodogical research approaches SERENA QUARTA , MARCO PALMIERI AND GIUSEPPE PELLEGRINI Current issues 4 Social systems and social love: a macro-perspective on the history of civilizations GENNARO IORIO 5 Social love as utopian and heterotopian experiences in contemporary society PAULO HENRIQUE MARTINS PART II: Social love as overabundance Insight 6 Social love as an approach: notes from the field SARI HANAFI Evidence 7 Giving without expectations: the results of the World Love Index MARCO PALMIERI AND CHIARA IANNACCONE Current issues 8 Collective action and love ADRIAN SCRIBANO 9 Social love and social movements in the pandemic GEOFFREY PLEYERS PART III: Social love as care of others and the world Insight 10 Re-imagining cosmopolitics: love as taking care of the world FILIPE CAMPELLO Evidence 11 Educational poverty and care for others: a relation between human development and social love ANDREA GALLELLI , PAOLO CONTINI AND ANGELA MONGELLI 12 Social love in pandemic time: an opportunity to generate and regenerate social relationships LICIA PAGLIONE AND GIUSEPPE PELLEGRINI 13 Social love in healthcare professionals: some preliminary reflections on a missing issue BARBARA SENA Current issues 14 Poverty and generative welfare: perspectives for a new approach to social intervention LUIGI GUI AND TIZIANO VECCHIATO 15 Post-Covid perspectives: an overview on inequalities and love experiences in Latin America ROLANDO CRISTAO , MARCELO SALAS AND CLARA DESALVO PART IV: Social love as universalism Insight 16 Towards a convivialist society: how to think and act for pluriversalism ALAIN CAILLÉ Evidence 17 Universal is plural: The results of a comparative study from secondary sources FABRIZIO MARTIRE AND PAOLO PARRA SAIANI Current issues 18 Common goods and institutions as fields of impersonal action EMANUELE POLIZZI PART V: Social love as recognition of others Insight 19 Love in democracy: unfolding sovereignty, resonating common good ANDRÈ MAGNELLI Evidence 20 Radical love and forgiveness: re-suturing the social racial wounds in the United States WILLIAM CALVO QUIRÓS Current issues 21 Love beyond coloniality: encountering the other, love precarity, and the idiosyncrasies of love from the South WILLIAM CALVO QUIRÓS, AGNÈS MARIE KEUHO AND ANTONIO MENDES DA COSTA BRAGA Conclusion GENNARO IORIO AND SILVIA CATALDI
Silvia Cataldi, PhD, is Associate Professor of sociology at the Department of Psychology of Development and Socialization Processes of Sapienza University of Rome (Italy). She teaches sociology and research methods on bachelor’s and master’s degree courses and in the doctoral school. Her research focuses on methodological aspects of social research and emerging cultural and social identity models and she is involved in many European projects. She is a board member of the European Sociological Association 20RN Qualitative Methods, and the coordinator of the international research network Social-One. Among her publications she has co-edited with Iorio two books on social love: Love at the Time of Accounting (2015) and Culture of Peace (2016). Gennaro Iorio, PhD, is Full Professor of sociology. He is Director of the Department of Political and Social Studies of the University of Salerno (Italy). Expert in the history of sociological thought, he teaches sociology of innovation, common goods, and sustainable development goals on bachelor’s and master’s degree courses and in the doctoral school. His research projects include urban resilience and prosociality, empathy between sociology and neuroscience, north–south inequalities and social innovation. For almost 20 years he has been studying social love and has published the first avant-garde books on the subject, such as Sociology of Love (2015) now published in three languages, Italian, English and Portuguese.
