Arlie
Hochschild is an American sociologist and academic. She is professor emerita of sociology at the University of California, Berkeley. Hochschild
has long focused on the human emotions which underlie moral beliefs,
practices, and social life generally. Arlie is author of:
Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right.
Publisher's Weekly notes:
"After evaluating her conclusions and meeting her informants in these
pages, it's hard to disagree that empathy is the best solution to stymied
political and social discourse."
"An empathy wall is an obstacle to deep understanding of
another person, one that can make us feel indifferent or even hostile to
those who hold different beliefs or whose childhood is rooted in different
circumstances."
"We, on both sides, wrongly imagine that empathy with the "other" side
brings an end to clearheaded analysis when, in truth, it's on the other
side of that bridge that the most important analysis can begin."
"We are all the surveyors, drafters, and followers of "empathy maps" -
which show us whom and whom not to empathize with. Just as political maps
can be drawn and redrawn, so too can empathy maps - depending on the
interplay of gender, race, class, and nationality."
"It built the scaffolding of an empathy bridge. We on both sides, wrongly
imagine that empathy with the "other" side brings an end to clearheaded
analysis when, in truth, it's on the other side of that bridge that the
most important analysis can begin."
"It was empathy walls the interested me. An empathy wall is an obstacle to
deep understanding of another person, one that can make us feel
indifferent or even hostile to those who hold different beliefs or whose
childhood is rooted in different circumstances." p5
"We settle for knowing our opposite numbers from the outside. But is it
possible, without changing our beliefs, to know others from the inside, to
see reality through their eyes, to understand the links between life,
feeling, and politics: that is: to cross the empathy wall." p5
"Maybe the best way to find out, I thought, was to reverse the "Big Sort,"
to leave my blue neighborhood and state, and try to scale the empathy
wall." p10
"He is an empathy wall leaper." p62
"In my travels, I was humbled by the complexity and height of the empathy
wall." p233
Empathy Maps
"When we draw a map, we draw boundaries around zones - we empathize
with people in the empathy zone, and, not with those outside it. We
imagine certain individuals or types of people as eligible for empathy,
and others, not. To widen the criteria for entrance into an empathy zone,
we try out empathy on a wide variety of people."
"We are all the surveyors, drafters, and followers of "empathy maps" -
which show us whom and whom not to empathize with. Just as political maps
can be drawn and redrawn, so too can empathy maps - depending on the
interplay of gender, race, class, and nationality."
"So empathy maps are not given to us: We develop the art of making them.
Some maps are mere sketches."
Articles, Interviews and Videos
Mens et Manus America: A
Conversation with Arlie Hochschild
"if you are going to the heart of the right, maybe there is something about
you that is a little more right.
I find a core missing idea , in those two responses. The missing idea is that
you can't remain exactly who you are and empathically take as your challenge
to cross into the experience of another person. That is a very important
missing idea and one that raises issues that face us today going
forward."
"Sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild set out to explore what she
saw as a paradox in American political life: red states depend the most
on the federal government, but also distrust it the most. It's
the topic of her new book, "Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and
Mourning on the American Right," for which she traveled to Louisiana to
research the phenomenon. She sits down with Jeffrey Brown."
Scaling the Empathy Wall
By Laura Saponara
October 21, 2016 - GreaterGood.Berkeley.edu
In her new book, Arlie Hochschild urges us to feel what Donald Trump
voters feel.
"Hochschild - s method is to listen, which she did over a five-year
period, to pipe fitters, plant operators, telephone repairmen, building
contractors, a gospel singer, and a pastor - s wife who refers to Rush
Limbaugh as "my brave heart." These are people who have struggled over
decades to survive the indignities of a declining economy and
environment. They are all staunch supporters of the Tea Party, a
conservative political movement that arose in response to the election
of Barack Obama."
"A deeper understanding - and an invitation to scale the "empathy
wall" - comes from veteran sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild in her new
book,Strangers
In Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right.
The book is, as its second subtitle suggests, "A Journey to the Heart
of Our Political Divide.""
"Why
she feels empathy on the part of people who disagree is an important
part of creating dialogue
Whether
empathy and respect are in tension with each other-
Why many
white men don't feel they're part of a privileged group
What she
thought of Clinton's comments that half of Trump's supporters are a
"basket of deplorables"
And much
more.
This
is a time when listening and empathy are in shorter supply than ever, at
least in American politics. It's well worth listening to Hochschild's
advice on how to bring both back. "
Scaling the Empathy Wall
By Laura Saponara
"What does she discover? Plenty. Scaling the empathy wall allows her to
perceive an undeclared class war - but not the one liberals and progressives
see, between the one percent and the 99 percent. This class war is between the
middle class, the working class - and the poor. The federal government is on the
wrong side of that war, providing help to the poorest while neglecting
everyone else. The oil and gas industry - and business in general - offers jobs
and hope, a way forward, leadership and wealth. The poor reject work and steal
tax dollars, in the view of people Hochschild interviews; that makes them
immoral. That's why her subjects - greatest scorn goes to the poor and their
greatest respect goes to the people who pursue profit. People like Donald
Trump."
A new book encourages us to scale the "empathy wall" to understand a segment
of Trump supporters
byChuck Collins
"There are many theories and explanations for the rise of Donald
Trump and the current incarnation of white right-wing populism.A deeper
understanding - and an invitation to scale the "empathy wall" - comes from veteran
sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild in her new book,Strangers
In Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right.
The book is, as its second subtitle suggests, "A Journey to the Heart of
Our Political Divide."
"MO: You - ve written about "empathy maps" and the German sociologist
Gertrud Koch dedicated her book, Pathways to Empathy, to you. What's an
empathy map?
AH: It's a social space we envision enclosed by boundaries separating it
from other social spaces. We empathize with those inside that space, and
not with people outside it. Two groups of people can be equally capable
of empathy and equally active at the hidden practices which enhance
empathy but, given their different maps, refuse empathy to one another.
To expand our maps, we need to feel our way across the boundaries we set
between them. I'm keenly interested in just how we do that."
