Edgar Cabanas
Edgar Cabanas is PhD in Psychology by the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. He currently is Research Fellow at the Universidad Camilo José Cela (co-financed by the Community of Madrid, Spain). He has been Adjunct Researcher (2016-2018) and Postdoctoral Researcher (2014-2016) at the Center for the History of Emotions (Max Planck Institute for Human Development), in Berlin. His main field of research focuses on the political, economic, and social uses of the contemporary psychological notion of happiness. He is the author of Manufacturing Happy Citizens. How the Science and Industry of Happiness Control Our Lives (Polity), with Eva Illouz, and translated into more than 11 languages. He has also published several scientific papers (Theory & Psychology, Culture & Psychology) and book chapters (Oxford University Press, Suhrkamp), such as Rekindling Individualism, Consuming Emotions: The Construction of Psytizens in the Age of Happiness; Inverting the Pyramid of Needs: Positive Psychology’s New Order for Labor Success; and The Making of a ‘Happy Worker’: Positive Psychology in Neoliberal Organizations. He has been a visiting scholar in the Center for the Study of Rationality at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, in 2011 and 2013; he is co-editor of Routledge’s series on Therapeutic Culture since 2018, and researcher in several R&D International Projects.
Interests
My primary line of research is directed toward further developing the thesis that the contemporary discourse of happiness rekindles and legitimizes the ideology of individualism in seemingly non-ideological terms through the discourse of science. More specifically, one of my main aims is to analyze the political model of selfhood (and its main features) that underlies the mainstream academic and popular discourse of happiness, which I call psytizen. I define psytizen as a neoliberal and consumerist kind of subjectivity that renders citizens as clients whose full functionality as individuals is largely tied to the pursuing, development, and consumption of happiness, with happiness understood as the universal leitmotif of human action.
A second main objective is to analyze how the discourse of happiness is applied to public and private policies, both at a macro and micro political level. To this regard, I am interested in how and for what purposes several governments of different countries are currently applying the so-called “Gross Happiness Product (GHP)” to make political decisions —the research project attached focuses on this second interest. I also deal with the use of happiness-based criteria within the organizational realm, trying to examine to what extent happiness is changing the notions of work and worker.
A second main objective is to analyze how the discourse of happiness is applied to public and private policies, both at a macro and micro political level. To this regard, I am interested in how and for what purposes several governments of different countries are currently applying the so-called “Gross Happiness Product (GHP)” to make political decisions —the research project attached focuses on this second interest. I also deal with the use of happiness-based criteria within the organizational realm, trying to examine to what extent happiness is changing the notions of work and worker.
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
- Cabanas, E., & Illouz, E. (2019). Hijacking the Language of Functionality? In Praise of “Negative” Emotions Against Happiness. In N. Hill, S. Brinkmann, & A. Petersen (Eds.), Critical Happiness Studies (pp. 67–82). London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203730119. Link
- Cabanas, E. (2019). Experiencing designs and designing experiences: Emotions and theme parks from a symbolic interactionist perspective. Journal of Destination Marketing and Management. DOI: 10.1016/j.jdmm.2018.12.004. Link
- Cabanas, E. & Illouz, E. (2019). Manufacturing Happy Citizens. How the Science and Industry of Happiness Control our Lives. Cambridge and Medford: Polity. Link
- Cabanas, E. & Illouz, E. (2019). Happycracy. Come la scienza della felicità controlla le nostre vite. Milano: Codice Edizioni. Link
- Cabanas, E. & Illouz, E. (2019). Happycracia. Cómo la ciencia y la industria de la felicidad controlan nuestras vidas. Barcelona: Paidós. Link
- Cabanas, E., & Illouz, E. (2018). Happycratie. Comment l'industrie du bonheur a pris le contrôle de nos vies. Paris: Premier Parallèle. Link.
- Cabanas, E. (2018). Positive Psychology and the legitimation of individualism. Theory & Psychology, 28(1), 3–19.
- Cabanas, E. (2018). “Psytizens”, or the construction of happy individuals in neoliberal societies. In E. Illouz (Ed.), Emotions as Commodities. Capitalism, Consumption and Authenticity (pp. 173–196). London and New York: Routledge.
- Cabanas, E., & Illouz, E. (2017). The making of a "happy worker": Positive Psychology in neoliberal organizations. In A. Pugh (ed.), Beyond the cubicle: insecurity culture and the flexible self. New York : Oxford University Press, 25-50.
- Cabanas, E. (2016). Rekindling individualism, consuming emotions: Constructing “Psytizens” in the age of happiness. Culture & Psychology, 22(3), 467–480.
- Cabanas, E., & Sánchez-González, J. C. (2016). Inverting the pyramid of needs: Positive psychology´s new order for labor success. Psicothema, 28(2), 107-113.
- Cabanas, E., & Illouz, E. (2015). Fit fürs Gluck - Positive Psychologie und ihr Einfluss auf die Identität von Arbeitskräften in neoliberalen Organisationen. Verhaltenstherapie & Psychosoziale Praxis, 47(3), 563–578.
- Cabanas, E., & Huertas, J.A. (2014). Positive psychology and self-help popular psychology: a historical, psychological and cultural romance. Anales de Psicología, 30 (3), 852-864.
- Cabanas, E., & Sánchez, J.C. (2012). The roots of Positive Psychology. Papeles del Psicólogo, 33 (3), 172-182.
PERSONAL WEBSITES