This chapter examines how love and intimate relationships are changing in a time of globalization. As it becomes exponentially simpler to connect with others around interest areas and inclinations, new conceptualizations of intimate relationships are becoming common place in near and far places in the world. As Naomi Quinn pointed out in 1992, love is socially constructed and interconnected with other domains of social life such as gender relations, family, and work life. While love is often presented as “natural” and immutable, it is however intimately tied to cultural systems of meaning. This presents the question of what is meant by love and intimate relationships in varying cultural and socio-economic contexts, contexts that are rapidly transforming due to social, political, economic, and technological transformations. Globalization has been primarily analyzed through the prism of economics and politics with little attention on how more intimate processes and concepts are being simultaneously reshaped. And yet we know that globalization is introducing new concepts of romance, love, and intimate relationships which are transformed in local contexts. Technology facilitates these flows and encourages the ensuing hybridity that characterizes our time. In this chapter, I will examine how experiences of love and intimacy are transforming in various contexts in response to globalization. There will be a specific emphasis on differences in these concepts based on class, race, nationality, sexualities, and geographic location.

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Love in a Time of Globalization: Intimacy Re-imagined Across Cultural Flows

  • Bahira Trask

摘要

This chapter examines how love and intimate relationships are changing in a time of globalization. As it becomes exponentially simpler to connect with others around interest areas and inclinations, new conceptualizations of intimate relationships are becoming common place in near and far places in the world. As Naomi Quinn pointed out in 1992, love is socially constructed and interconnected with other domains of social life such as gender relations, family, and work life. While love is often presented as “natural” and immutable, it is however intimately tied to cultural systems of meaning. This presents the question of what is meant by love and intimate relationships in varying cultural and socio-economic contexts, contexts that are rapidly transforming due to social, political, economic, and technological transformations. Globalization has been primarily analyzed through the prism of economics and politics with little attention on how more intimate processes and concepts are being simultaneously reshaped. And yet we know that globalization is introducing new concepts of romance, love, and intimate relationships which are transformed in local contexts. Technology facilitates these flows and encourages the ensuing hybridity that characterizes our time. In this chapter, I will examine how experiences of love and intimacy are transforming in various contexts in response to globalization. There will be a specific emphasis on differences in these concepts based on class, race, nationality, sexualities, and geographic location.