They Call It Love: The Politics of Emotional Life

They Call It Love is an examination of the work we call "love", who performs it, how it is organised, and how we might re-organise it. Through understanding love as emotional reproduction, Alva Gotby makes clear that our emotional lives are inherently political. How do you know someone cares for you? Think about the small gestures of love – all the little things that have made you feel supported and cared for. Who was working to make you feel safe, loved, and supported? The work of caring for people is an essential but devalued aspect of capitalist societies. In this groundbreaking book, Alva Gotby calls for a new understanding of 'emotional reproduction' – the work of soothing children and providing company for the elderly, comforting partners, family members, and friends, and maintaining intimate forms of sociality. This work is commonly known as “love.” Emotional reproduction is not something we usually think about or notice. It’s the everyday work that we do for our family members, friends, co-workers and others – comforting, cheering up those who are feeling sad or lonely, creating emotional warmth. There is an assumption in our society that healthy adults can care for themselves and that only children and the mentally ill need emotional support. But emotional reproduction shows that we are all dependent on one another. Adults as well as children need emotional care. And not only those with a mental illness need support from others – all of us do.

About the Author :
Alva Gotby holds a PhD in Media Studies from the University of West London and an MA in Philosophy and Contemporary Critical Theory from the Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy, Kingston University. Her writing has been published in MaI: Feminism and Visual Culture, Blindfield: A Journal of Cultural Inquiry, and Feminist Review, as well as in outlets in Sweden, Norway and Denmark. She frequently speaks at conferences related to Marxism, feminism and queer politics.

Review :
A fascinating and exhaustive explanation as to why emotions are a political issue. They Call It Love shines a light on the invisible labour involved in love, examining who is responsible for performing it, how it can blossom, and why we do it. Gotby makes clear our emotional lives are inherently political. Her analysis of the politics of reproductive labour is a cogent criticism of the bourgeois capitalist logics of feeling, of the free labour of intimacy and of normative femininity. They Call It Love is a very fine book - one that balances polemical force with careful and rigorous research. In advancing its account of emotional reproduction, it brings together existing bodies of work on unwaged social reproduction and remunerated emotional labour to great effect, shining a light upon a too often overlooked (and heavily gendered) form of work. It is sharp, thoughtful, and well-written, and represents a substantial scholarly achievement. Alva Gotby is a writer and thinker to watch out for. This thorough book sheds new light on the critics of the political economy on emotional life. It is a welcome addition to the studies on the social meaning of the immaterial production that takes place in the domestic sphere. They Call It Love is a fascinating insider's account of the hidden, economic dimension of our emotional lives whose subject matter will make for passionate arguments and conversations among feminists and scholars in general. Gotby's book importantly attempts to underscore and theorise the role of emotions within social reproduction theory. Her concept of 'emotional reproduction' is a reminder that fife-making work is not devoid of affect. They Call It Love is a call to attention: Alva Gotby astutely maps the work of emotional support and care that is done day in and day out and across everyday life. Gotby not only insists that more value be attributed to emotional reproduction, but makes a sophisticated and compelling case for a radical repurposing of emotions, needs, and desires in the struggle for change - a struggle that is necessarily also a struggle for new ways of being together. Gotby powerfully, and persuasively, argues that the labour of love is at the heart of the anti-capitalist struggle . a beautifully written and engaging book that introduces complex ideas and explains them incredibly well.