Struggling with Emotions in Times of Social Change:Control Restoring Operations in the Workplace and the Family

Modernization discourses which penetrated into Poland after the systemic transitions of 1989 brought meanings that were in opposition to those embedded in the traditional models of interpersonal relations. Although the emergence of new meanings pertaining to asymmetrical social relations is typical for societies undergoing structural and cultural transformation, in the case of Poland these shifts have advanced rapidly, especially in comparison with the Western societies. This resulted in the fragmentation of the doxa—the set of taken-forgranted assumptions about the ‘natural’ shape of interpersonal relations. Due to this ‘responsible actors’ whose social roles have been so far based on authority have been affected by a loss of the sense of control over their basic social relations, i.e. the relations through which they define their identity and/or appoint life goals. Using qualitative evidence from Poland we analyze interpersonal relations in two domains of social life, i.e. work and family, in order to identify interactional operations through which the ‘responsible actors’ (managers and parents) attempt to regain control over interaction partners. Comparison across two different fields of social life offers an in-depth insight into the general dynamics of control restoring operations, and the key role of emotion management in this process.