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 clichés 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

• Acknowledgements xiIntroduction: Affinities as an Invitation to Think Differently 1Part One: Sensations of LivingWhy Sensations? 7Facets of Sensation 111. Ashes, ghosts and the ‘sense of presence’ 112. ‘Grandma’s Hands’ by Bill Withers (version by Gil ScottHeron) 173. The sensations of others: children’s perspectives 18Looks 21Voices, volume and imitation 22Size, height, weight, growing 24Play fighting and real fighting 26Bodily proximity with others 27Relational traces and bodily inscriptions 274. The sensory-kinaesthetic intimacies of violence 295. Becky Tipper’s creaturely ‘moments of being’ 316. Meat, ‘food-animals’ and Rhoda Wilkie’s ‘sentient commodities’ 33Layering the Argument: Sensations of Affinity 39Life is full of sensory-kinaesthetics 40Sensations are multiple and atmospheric, emanating in encounters 42Sensations as sensations: not representations, adjuncts or qualities 46A sensory-kinaesthetic attunement reveals characters 50Affinities are charged with the energies of fascination, wondering and discordance 54Part Two: Ineffable KinshipWhy Ineffable Kinship? 59Facets of Ineffable Kinship 631. Family resemblances in literature and art 632. Resemblance interactions 68A familiar conversation topic and form 70Resemblances as striking, fleeting and capricious 71Negotiating and ‘settling’ resemblances 72An uneasy combination of the potent and the trivial 743. Resemblance stories 744. The still-beating heart 895. Nordqvist and Smart’s donors as ‘enigmatic presences’ 936. Konrad’s ‘nameless relations’ and ‘transilience’ 977. Super-donors and dubious progeniture 1018. ‘The Seed’ by The Roots, featuring Cody Chesnutt 104Layering the Argument: Affinities of Ineffable Kinship 106Metaphors of genetics and heritability 106Poetics and the ‘frisson’ of ineffability 111Wondering about what is circulating and relating 114Part Three: Ecologies and Socio-AtmosphericsWhy Ecologies and Socio-Atmospherics? 123Facets of Ecologies and Socio-Atmospherics 1261. Animate places and things in literature 126Nan Shepherd’s ‘living mountain’ 126Jon McGregor’s city that ‘sings’ 127Haruki Murakami’s ‘pulsing’ city 129Barbara Kingsolver’s Africa as an ‘attendance in my soul’ 1302. Atmospheric memories of animate places and things 131The atmospherics of a teenager’s city 131Anat Hecht’s ‘tangible memories’ of home 133Karin Widerberg’s atmospheric memories of ‘the homes of others’ 1353. Animate technologies, vehicles and journeys 137Phone feelings 137The threaded worlds of train travel 140Mimi Sheller’s ‘automotive emotions’ and ‘feeling the car’ 143Lynne Pearce’s ‘autopia’ of driving and thinking 1464. Weathery weather in social science and literature 1485. Writing weather stories 1526. Socio-atmospherics and the time of the floods 154Shock: the power and magnitude of water 155Bearing witness and being in touch 156An atmosphere of ‘getting on with it’ 158Legacies of the floods 1597. Weather poetics 164Layering the Argument: Ecologies and SocioAtmospherics 168Ecologies as convivialities, assemblages, happenings and animated space 169The feel of places, things, journeys and technologies 175Enigmatic ecologies and the socio-atmospherics of living 178From what is connected to the dynamics of connection 180Ecological poetics 184Conclusion: Affinities in Time 186Three layers of the argument 187Time: a final layering 188Time and sensations 190Time and ineffable kinship 193Time, ecologies and socio-atmospherics 196Accepting the invitation of affinities 200Notes 203References 204Index 000

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 clichés 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

• Acknowledgements xiIntroduction: Affinities as an Invitation to Think Differently 1Part One: Sensations of LivingWhy Sensations? 7Facets of Sensation 111. Ashes, ghosts and the ‘sense of presence’ 112. ‘Grandma’s Hands’ by Bill Withers (version by Gil ScottHeron) 173. The sensations of others: children’s perspectives 18Looks 21Voices, volume and imitation 22Size, height, weight, growing 24Play fighting and real fighting 26Bodily proximity with others 27Relational traces and bodily inscriptions 274. The sensory-kinaesthetic intimacies of violence 295. Becky Tipper’s creaturely ‘moments of being’ 316. Meat, ‘food-animals’ and Rhoda Wilkie’s ‘sentient commodities’ 33Layering the Argument: Sensations of Affinity 39Life is full of sensory-kinaesthetics 40Sensations are multiple and atmospheric, emanating in encounters 42Sensations as sensations: not representations, adjuncts or qualities 46A sensory-kinaesthetic attunement reveals characters 50Affinities are charged with the energies of fascination, wondering and discordance 54Part Two: Ineffable KinshipWhy Ineffable Kinship? 59Facets of Ineffable Kinship 631. Family resemblances in literature and art 632. Resemblance interactions 68A familiar conversation topic and form 70Resemblances as striking, fleeting and capricious 71Negotiating and ‘settling’ resemblances 72An uneasy combination of the potent and the trivial 743. Resemblance stories 744. The still-beating heart 895. Nordqvist and Smart’s donors as ‘enigmatic presences’ 936. Konrad’s ‘nameless relations’ and ‘transilience’ 977. Super-donors and dubious progeniture 1018. ‘The Seed’ by The Roots, featuring Cody Chesnutt 104Layering the Argument: Affinities of Ineffable Kinship 106Metaphors of genetics and heritability 106Poetics and the ‘frisson’ of ineffability 111Wondering about what is circulating and relating 114Part Three: Ecologies and Socio-AtmosphericsWhy Ecologies and Socio-Atmospherics? 123Facets of Ecologies and Socio-Atmospherics 1261. Animate places and things in literature 126Nan Shepherd’s ‘living mountain’ 126Jon McGregor’s city that ‘sings’ 127Haruki Murakami’s ‘pulsing’ city 129Barbara Kingsolver’s Africa as an ‘attendance in my soul’ 1302. Atmospheric memories of animate places and things 131The atmospherics of a teenager’s city 131Anat Hecht’s ‘tangible memories’ of home 133Karin Widerberg’s atmospheric memories of ‘the homes of others’ 1353. Animate technologies, vehicles and journeys 137Phone feelings 137The threaded worlds of train travel 140Mimi Sheller’s ‘automotive emotions’ and ‘feeling the car’ 143Lynne Pearce’s ‘autopia’ of driving and thinking 1464. Weathery weather in social science and literature 1485. Writing weather stories 1526. Socio-atmospherics and the time of the floods 154Shock: the power and magnitude of water 155Bearing witness and being in touch 156An atmosphere of ‘getting on with it’ 158Legacies of the floods 1597. Weather poetics 164Layering the Argument: Ecologies and SocioAtmospherics 168Ecologies as convivialities, assemblages, happenings and animated space 169The feel of places, things, journeys and technologies 175Enigmatic ecologies and the socio-atmospherics of living 178From what is connected to the dynamics of connection 180Ecological poetics 184Conclusion: Affinities in Time 186Three layers of the argument 187Time: a final layering 188Time and sensations 190Time and ineffable kinship 193Time, ecologies and socio-atmospherics 196Accepting the invitation of affinities 200Notes 203References 204Index 000