Harry Blatterer

Everyday Friendship conceptualises the lived experience of intimacy in a world in which the terms and conditions of love and friendship are increasingly unclear. Drawing on writing on friendship, love, and intimacy by such thinkers as Simmel and Kracauer, Elias, Goffman, Luhmann and Honneth, the book charts the modern meaning of intimacy and the freedoms it offers, as well as the continued challenges of entrenched gendered assumptions in everyday relations of affection, trust and respect. It shows that the analysis of the 'small world' of dyads can give important clues about society, and in this case about its gendered makeup. Everyday Friendship seeks to reintegrate into sociology the study of friendship and the analysis of dyads.

Intimacy as Freedom in a Complex World

Everyday Friendships

Adulthood is taken for granted. It connotes the end of childhood, the resolution to the “storm and stress” period of adolescence. This conception is strongly entrenched in the sociology of youth and the sociology of the life course as well as in the policy arena. At the same time, adulthood itself remains unarticulated; journey’s end remains conceptually fixed and theoretically uncontested. Adulthood, then, is both central to the social imagination and neglected as an area of sociological investigation, something that has been noted by sociologists over the last four decades. Going beyond the overwhelmingly psychological literature, this book draws on original qualitative research and theories of social recognition and thus presents a first step towards filling an important gap in our understanding of the meaning of adulthood.

Coming of Age in Times of Uncertainty

Adulthood is taken for granted. It connotes the end of childhood, the resolution to the "storm and stress" period of adolescence. This conception is strongly entrenched in the sociology of youth and the sociology of the life course as well as in the policy arena. At the same time, adulthood itself remains unarticulated; journey's end remains conceptually fixed and theoretically uncontested. Adulthood, then, is both central to the social imagination and neglected as an area of sociological investigation, something that has been noted by sociologists over the last four decades. Going beyond the overwhelmingly psychological literature, this book draws on original qualitative research and theories of social recognition and thus presents a first step towards filling an important gap in our understanding of the meaning of adulthood.

Pauline Johnson

Maria R. Markus

Modern Privacies addresses emergent transformations of privacy in western societies from a multidisciplinary and international perspective. It examines social and cultural trends in new media, feminism, law, work and intimacy which indicate that our perceptions, evaluations and enactments of privacy in constant flux.

Shifting Boundaries, New Forms

Modern Privacy

Francesco Alberoni

Sveva Magaraggia

In Friendship, Francesco Alberoni differentiates friendship from other interpersonal relationships and shows that the friendship encounter embodies justice and thus resists dehumanizing societal trends. The ideals of friendship enjoin us to realize the republican virtues in everyday life.

Harry Blatterer

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