Friendship and Formations of Sociality in Late Modernity: the Challenge of 'Post Traditional Intimacy'

Starting from the vantage point of a 'relational ontology' this paper explores the complex relationship networks of people who are single or are not living with a sexual partner. The ways in which people make sense of the boundaries of their connections is analysed. It is argued that the meaning of individual social bonds emerge relationally and that by asking why and how friendship matters to people, we begin to see what other kinds of interpersonal relationships also mean and why they matter. This lends insights into the ways relational networks operate within conditions of detraditionalisation and the emergence of non-linear life courses. In particular consideration is given to both the epistemic and ethical dimension through which friendship operate in daily life.Friendship, Intimacy, Individualisation, Personal Relationships, Families of Choice, Ethics of Friendship

The “Problem” With Single Women: Choice, Accountability and Social Change

Despite increased acknowledgement of gender equality as a social good, there are some areas where the practice of women’s autonomy is apparently inconsistent with the normative prescriptions of a new ‘empowered’ form of femininity. Sexuality and personal relationship status are sites where women are positioned within neo-liberal and post-feminist discourse in such a way that their choices are subject to questioning. A model of gender hegemony is useful for understanding how and why choosing to be single may still constitute a ‘problem’ for women, despite the intensification of messages which also address women as autonomous, sexualized subjects. In cultures dominated by an ideology of marriage and family life, single women’s identity work resolves contradictions in the current gender order and in the process reinstates heteronormativity.</jats:p

Individualised Femininity and Feminist Politics of Choice

Women’s right to exercise choice has been one of feminism’s central political claims. Where second wave feminism focused on the constraints women faced in making free choices, choice feminism more recently reorients feminist politics with a call for recognition of the choices women are actually making. From this perspective the role of feminism is to validate women’s choices without passing judgement. This article analyses this shift in orientation by locating women’s choices within a late modern gender order in which the ideal of choice has increasingly been associated with a new form of femininity characterized as self-determining, individuated and ‘empowered’. Instead of offering an effective analysis of the changing social conditions within which the relationship between feminism, femininity and individual choice has become increasingly complicated, choice feminism directs criticism at feminist perspectives characterized as overly prescriptive. This critique fails to appreciate how feminist ideals have been recuperated in the service of late capitalism and neoliberal forms of governance. By failing to engage critically with processes currently impacting on the social organization of gender choice feminism aids in the constitution of an individuated neoliberal feminist subject which performs cultural work vital to the reproduction of neoliberal governmentality.</jats:p

The personal is political:assessing feminist fundamentals in the digital age

The &lsquo;personal is political&rsquo; has long been recognised as the definitive slogan of second-wave feminism but can it still inform our understanding of the contemporary practice of feminism? Questioning the importance of this claim now invites us to critically reflect upon the trajectory Western feminism has followed in light of the efforts made by the Women&rsquo;s Liberation movement to politicise formerly unquestioned aspects of social relations. In this paper, the significance of this feminist slogan will be assessed by locating it within two broadly defined historical periods. Firstly we identify the critical work performed by the ideas expressed in the slogan in the early years of the 1970s and then assess their continued relevance within the context of the early 21st century. Drawing upon the empirical analysis of young women&rsquo;s experience of and relationship to feminism via their engagement with social media in Britain, this research critically assesses digital spaces as places where young women explore their personal experiences. We aim to understand how this may constitute a contemporary form of feminist practice consistent with the claim that &lsquo;the personal is political&rsquo;

“Before I race I get my eyeliner straight and do my hair:” postfeminism and Victoria Pendleton

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Locating the subject : towards a reading of young women, identity and postmodernity

The aim of this research project is to examine theories of identity formation within the context of individualisation processes and the shift of social formations from modernity to postmodernity. The form and content of identity narratives being constructed by young women aged 16 to 21 are used as the empirical basis for addressing this research problem. Interviews were conducted with 33 young women and 5 practitioners across five different sites to explore what kinds of identities were under construction. The project is organised around the relationship between theory and the empirical such that data generated through interviews are utilised for the purposes of interrogating the ontological assumptions of theories of reflexive modernisation, particularly the work of Anthony Giddens. Working from within a poststructuralist framework a move is made beyond a deconstructive critique through to the development of alternate strategies for reading the identities under construction. It is this kind of integration between theory and the empirical that is central to sociological analysis and the furthering of theoretical projects. It is suggested that these young women were constructing a relation to the self where the self is defined as independent and autonomous. A Foucauldian approach is used to theorise this relation to the self and to critique the assumptions of reflexive modernisation. Emergent themes that are explored in relation to this construction of the self include technologies and narratives of the self; the organisation of identity and difference; embodiment and representational practices; intimacy and individualisation; and the emergence of 'micro politicised' identities