Abstract
Sara Ahmed has written a highly original book on happiness by not focusing on the content, but on the context in which the
word happiness is used. Her chapters are titled Feminist Killjoys, Unhappy Queers, Melancholic Mirgants and Happy Futures.
Ahmed convincingly shows that the pursuit of happiness may have unintended side-effects in different social contexts, and
she has collected al lot of stories and ideas that provide a backbone for the book. The ideological critique provided by Ahmed
would have been a lot stronger if she would have used data from empirical studies to judge her own ideas.
word happiness is used. Her chapters are titled Feminist Killjoys, Unhappy Queers, Melancholic Mirgants and Happy Futures.
Ahmed convincingly shows that the pursuit of happiness may have unintended side-effects in different social contexts, and
she has collected al lot of stories and ideas that provide a backbone for the book. The ideological critique provided by Ahmed
would have been a lot stronger if she would have used data from empirical studies to judge her own ideas.
- Content Type Journal Article
- Pages 1-3
- DOI 10.1007/s11482-010-9136-0
- Authors
- Ad Bergsma, Faculty of Social Sciences, Erasmus University Rotterdam, P.O. Box 1738, 3000 DR Rotterdam, The Netherlands
- Journal Applied Research in Quality of Life
- Online ISSN 1871-2576
- Print ISSN 1871-2584