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
... people Social fragmentation and marginalization, the persistence of racism and sexism, balkanization An emphasis on ... people's individuality A proliferation of choices McDonaldization, standardization A dumbing-down of ethics and ...
... people have to make over the control (or not) over one's body, feelings, relationships; access (or not) to representations, relationships, public spaces, etc.; and socially grounded choices (or not) about identities, gender experiences ...
... people smuggling, has been spawned. Last July, Italian police recalled that up to three dozen prostitutes had been shipped to Germany to sell their children to wealthy western couples. Guardian, December 9, 2000 “Sale of Babies on ...
... people this makes religious tradition less and less plausible as the source of the “one grand story” of the world. Yet, the very fragility of these traditions can ironically lead them to adopt stronger and stronger positions, to claim ...
... people, including myself, would argue that the world was never quite this simple anyway—though it has often been made to seem so.) A seemingly wider range of possibilities is now available. Whereas the traditional world was usually ...
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 |