Distant Love
Published on 18. December 2013
220 pages
978-0-7456-7992-1 (ISBN)
Description
Love and family life in the global age: grandparents in Salonikaand their grandson in London speak together every evening viaSkype. A U.S. citizen and her Swiss husband fret over largetelephone bills and high travel costs. A European couple canfinally have a baby with the help of an Indian surrogatemother.
In their new book, Ulrich Beck and Elisabeth Beck-Gernsheiminvestigate all types of long-distance relationships, marriages andfamilies that stretch across countries, continents and cultures.These long-distance relationships comprise so many different formsof what they call 'world families', by which they meanlove and intimate relationships between individuals living in, orcoming from, different countries or continents. In all theirvarious forms these world families share one feature in common:they are the focal point in which different aspects of theglobalized world become embodied in the personal lives ofindividuals. Whether they like it or not, lovers and relatives inthese families find themselves confronting the world in the innerspace of their own lives. The conflicts between the developed anddeveloping worlds come to the surface in world families- theyacquire faces and names, creating confusion, surprise, anger, joy,pleasure and pain at the heart of everyday life.
This path-breaking book will appeal to a wide readership interestedin the changing character of love in our times.
In their new book, Ulrich Beck and Elisabeth Beck-Gernsheiminvestigate all types of long-distance relationships, marriages andfamilies that stretch across countries, continents and cultures.These long-distance relationships comprise so many different formsof what they call 'world families', by which they meanlove and intimate relationships between individuals living in, orcoming from, different countries or continents. In all theirvarious forms these world families share one feature in common:they are the focal point in which different aspects of theglobalized world become embodied in the personal lives ofindividuals. Whether they like it or not, lovers and relatives inthese families find themselves confronting the world in the innerspace of their own lives. The conflicts between the developed anddeveloping worlds come to the surface in world families- theyacquire faces and names, creating confusion, surprise, anger, joy,pleasure and pain at the heart of everyday life.
This path-breaking book will appeal to a wide readership interestedin the changing character of love in our times.
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Ulrich Beck | Elisabeth Beck-Gernsheim
Distant Love
Book
11/2013
Polity Press
€24.00
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Ulrich Beck | Elisabeth Beck-Gernsheim
Distant Love
Book
11/2013
Polity Press
€67.50
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Persons
Ulrich Beck is one of the world's leading sociologists and social thinkers, well-known for his bestselling book Risk Society. He is Emeritus Professor at the University of Munich and Professor of Sociology at the LSE.
Elisabeth Beck-Gernsheim is Visiting Professor at the University of Trondheim. Her previous books include The Normal Chaos of Love (co-authored with Ulrich Beck).
Elisabeth Beck-Gernsheim is Visiting Professor at the University of Trondheim. Her previous books include The Normal Chaos of Love (co-authored with Ulrich Beck).
Content
Translator's Note vii
Introduction 1
1 Globalization of Love and Intimacy: The Rise of World Families 4
2 Two Countries, One Couple: Tales of Mutual Understanding and Misunderstanding 20
3 Love Has Two Enemies: Distance and Closeness 44
4 Cosmopolitan Communities of Fate 67
5 Intimate Migrations: Women Marrying for a Better Life 77
6 Love Displaced: Migrant Mothers 103
7 Male Hegemony in Decline? Why Women Gain Power in World Families 123
8 Transnational Family Networks: Winners of Globalization? 138
9 My Mother Was a Spanish Ovum: Baby Tourism and Global Patchwork Families 144
10 The Intimate is Global: The Model of Distant Love 166
11 Are World Families Pioneers of Cosmopolitanism? 183
References and Bibliography 194
Index 208
Introduction 1
1 Globalization of Love and Intimacy: The Rise of World Families 4
2 Two Countries, One Couple: Tales of Mutual Understanding and Misunderstanding 20
3 Love Has Two Enemies: Distance and Closeness 44
4 Cosmopolitan Communities of Fate 67
5 Intimate Migrations: Women Marrying for a Better Life 77
6 Love Displaced: Migrant Mothers 103
7 Male Hegemony in Decline? Why Women Gain Power in World Families 123
8 Transnational Family Networks: Winners of Globalization? 138
9 My Mother Was a Spanish Ovum: Baby Tourism and Global Patchwork Families 144
10 The Intimate is Global: The Model of Distant Love 166
11 Are World Families Pioneers of Cosmopolitanism? 183
References and Bibliography 194
Index 208
