The research unit Sociology of Emotion investigates affect and emotion in contemporary societies. Central to our research is the question how social inequality, stratification, and cultural difference can be conceived as affective dimensions of sociality. Also, we are interested in how public discourse and practices shape emotions and affect and the self- and world-relatedness of different actors. Last not least, we are interested in the situational relevance of emotions. To this end, we investigate how they become part of social interaction and motivate actions in different sites of the social, for example in politics, the economy, or technology.