A Sociology and Criminology Public Seminar by Dr Owen Abbott
16:00 - 17:15
Dr Owen Abbott, University of Cardiff
Lectures, talks and seminars
Sociology and Criminology Public Seminar
Sociology and Criminology, Department of
John Preston j.preston@essex.ac.uk
Dr Owen Abbott from Cardiff University, will discuss Interpersonal Forgiveness, an established area of study in psychology and communication studies.
Interpersonal forgiveness is an established area of study in psychology and communication studies. Yet, sociological research into the role, significance, and practicing of forgiveness in personal relationships is virtually non-existent. This talk will discuss my qualitative research project on forgiving and not forgiving in personal relationships, drawing on data from 42 in-depth interviews and a specially commissioned Mass Observation Project directive.
I will firstly discuss why forgiveness should be a significant topic for sociologists, arguing that sociological research is able to bring insights into experiences and practices of forgiveness that are missing in the overwhelmingly quantitative approaches of forgiveness research in adjacent disciplines. Existing forgiveness research struggles to capture forgiving and not forgiving as meaningful experiences, which are entangled in complex circumstances, extended relationships, and personal histories. I will argue here that forgiving and not forgiving should be understood as part of the vernacular through which difficult experiences within relationships are made sense of.
I will also argue that instances of forgiving and not forgiving discussed by participants highlight the entwinement of relationships with emotion-laden valuations. Forgiving and not forgiving provided a vocabulary through which hurt, pain, and regret were transmuted into reflections on responsibilities, on how they had treated others and been treated by others, on what they were willing to accept, and on what course future actions should take. I thus conclude by arguing that forgiving and not forgiving can be framed as “revaluative” emotional experiences.
Dr Owen Abbott is Lecturer in Social Sciences at Cardiff University, UK. He authored The Self, Relational Sociology, and Morality in Practice, which was awarded the British Sociological Association's Philip Abrams Prize 2020 for best first, sole-authored book. His original restorative work on Du Bois’s studies of morality has been esteemed by the American Sociological Association’s Altruism, Morality and Social Solidarity section.
Abbott also co-authored Masking in the Pandemic: Materiality, Interaction, and Moral Practice. He has recently completed a Leverhulme Trust-funded empirical project exploring forgiving and not forgiving in personal relationships, continuing his interest in the moral dynamics of personal lives. He is co-founder of the Social Studies of Ethics, Morality, and Values Network, an international and interdisciplinary network designed to advance studies in these areas.