The Transformation of Intimacy in Global Capitalism
Presentation
Overview
Overview
Description
Prominent social scientists like Zygmunt Bauman (2003), Anthony Giddens (1992), and Sherry Turkle (2017) are all interested in the ways that global capitalism permeates our private lives and disrupts intimate relations. Informed by the work of these scholars, this paper directs its efforts at defining intimacy, which is frequently left vague, and, in so doing, it identifies the conditions of possibility for its formation at both individual and social levels. The paper contemplates whether intimacy is a product of an intentional conduct (a rational calculation) or instead one ought to conceptualize it as a spontaneous, pre-discursive encounter. As such, the paper aims to sketch answers to two questions: How does global capitalism infiltrate our private lives, disrupt and rework intimacy and with what consequences? What roles does technology and social media play in this reworking?
