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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... traditional, modern, and 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 ...
... traditional family is in decline. The ethics of individual self-fulfillment and achievement is the most powerful current in modern society. The choosing, deciding, shaping human being who aspires to be the author of his or her own life ...
... traditional marriages we find a proliferation of new “families of choice.” “Intimate troubles” and “choices” around sexuality. Not only have matters of so-called sexual orientation and sexual preference been placed firmly on the agenda ...
... traditional, modern, and postmodern worlds. But it must be stressed that we do this at manifestly different speeds, to differing degrees, and with differing levels of self-awareness. Those who are aging, for example, and most of the ...
... traditional intimacies are still the norm in intense communities, in which people live surrounded by their families and neighbors and participate in bonding rituals embedded in strongly patriarchal and / or religious social orders.10 ...
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 |