Intimate Citizenship: Private Decisions and Public DialoguesUniversity of Washington Press, 2011 M10 1 - 192 pages Solo parenting, in vitro fertilization, surrogate mothers, gay and lesbian families, cloning and the prospect of “designer babies,” Viagra and the morning-after pill, HIV/AIDS, the global porn industry, on-line dating services, virtual sex--whether for better of worse, our intimate lives are in the throes of dramatic change. In this thought-provoking study, sociologist Ken Plummer examines the transformations taking place in the realm of intimacy and the conflicts--the “intimate troubles”--to which these changes constantly give rise. In surveying the intimate possibilities now available to us and the issues swirling around them, Plummer focuses especially on the overlap of public and private. Increasingly, our most private decisions are bound up with public institutions such as legal codes, the medical system, or the media. |
From inside the book
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... postmodern worlds! Once again, it took a sabbatical term in Santa Barbara for me to be able to finish the book, and I thank the university and the sociology department there for their continuing hospitality. And, finally, I owe my ...
... postmodernity almost interchangeably to characterize major changes of the sort discussed below. Second modernity is another such term.) From a great many sources come signs that at least some personal lives are being transformed. We ...
... post-modernism. All of this is, of course, the subject of much contentious debate, and we will return to it later ... postmodern worlds. But it must be stressed that we do this at manifestly different speeds, to differing degrees, and ...
... postmodern to be more and more congenial to the organization of their lives.9 Thus, traditional intimacies are still the norm in intense communities, in which people live surrounded by their families and neighbors and participate in ...
... postmodern world. I will consider possible ways of finding “values in a godless world,” or at least ways to appreciate the politics surrounding these new choices and changes.15 I make no grand claims, but I do believe that a new ...
Contents
3 | |
17 | |
3 Culture Wars and Contested Intimacies | 33 |
4 The New Theories of Citizenship | 49 |
5 Public Intimacies Private Citizens | 67 |
6 Dialogic Citizenship | 84 |
7 Stories and the Grounded Moralities of Everyday Life | 95 |
8 Globalizing Intimate Citizenship | 117 |
9 The Intimate Citizenship Project | 139 |
Notes | 147 |
Bibliography | 163 |
Index of Names | 179 |
Subject Index | 183 |