1st Edition

A Sociology of Awkwardness On Social Interactions Going Wrong

By Pauwke Berkers, Yosha Wijngaarden Copyright 2025
154 Pages 2 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

154 Pages 2 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

A Sociology of Awkwardness shows how awkward feelings are the outcome of social interactions going wrong. Combing insights from cultural sociology and the sociologies of interactions and emotions, this book develops the first comprehensive sociology of awkwardness. It provides an understanding of how people define, express, and experience awkwardness, while locating its causes not within... Read more

Introduction: Sociology’s awkward silence on awkwardness

1. Theorizing awkwardness

2. Culture, meaning, and awkwardness

3. Interactions, scripts, and awkwardness

4. Emotions, feelings, and awkwardness

5. Analyzing awkwardness

6. Awkward interactions

7. Awkward spaces

8. Awkward times

9. Dealing with awkwardness

Conclusion and discussion: That was awkward, folks!

Biography

Pauwke Berkers is Full Professor of Sociology of Popular Music at Erasmus University Rotterdam. As a music sociologist, he has written widely on social inequalities in popular music in academic journals, such as Gender & Society, Poetics, and Cultural Sociology. His most recent book is Gender Inequality in Metal Music Production (with Julian Schaap, 2018). As a cultural sociologist, his work addresses topics such as authenticity, stigmatization, boundary work and (long silence) awkwardness.

Yosha Wijngaarden is Assistant Professor Media and Creative Industries at Erasmus University Rotterdam. Working at the intersection of sociology, media studies, organization studies, and geography, she has written extensively on work practices and (potentially awkward) social interactions within the creative industries. Her work has been published in academic journals such as Geoforum, Human Relations, and Cultural Trends.