Whilst the politics of reproduction have been at the heart of feminist struggles for over a century and a half, their analysis has not yet come to occupy a central place in the interdisciplinary study of citizenship. ... more abstractWhilst the politics of reproduction have been at the heart of feminist struggles for over a century and a half, their analysis has not yet come to occupy a central place in the interdisciplinary study of citizenship. This volume takes up the challenge posed by Bryan Turner, when he noted "the absence of any systematic thinking about familial relations, reproduction and citizenship" (2008), and offers the first major global collection of work exploring this nexus of practices and political contestations. The book brings together citizenship scholars from across Europe, the Americas, and Australia to develop feminist and queer analyses of the relationship between citizenship and reproduction, and to explore the ways in which citizenship is reproduced. Extending the foundational work of feminist political theorists and sociologists who have interrogated the public/private dichotomy on which traditional civic republican and liberal understandings of citizenship rest, the contributors examine the biological, sexual, and technological realities of natality, and the social realities of the intimate intergenerational material and affective labour that are generative of citizens, and that serve to reproduce membership of, and belonging to, states, nations, societies, and thus of "citizenship" itself. This book was published as a special issue of Citizenship Studies.

Social Policy, Feminist Theory, Human Rights, Liberalism, Gender and Sexuality, and 7 more

Family Law, Personal Relationships, Intimacy, and Living apart together

Publication Date: 2012

Publication Name: Journal of Social Welfare & Family Law

Social Movements, Multiculturalism, Gay And Lesbian Studies, Family, Biography, and 3 more

Publication Date: 2012

Gender and Sexuality, Intimacy, and Citizenship

Publication Date: 2011

Publication Name: De-centring Western Sexualities: Central and Eastern European perspectives

Drawing on a European cross-national biographical-narrative study of intimate life, this article discusses the complexity of experiences of ‘togetherness’ and ‘apartness’ amongst people in living apart relationships. ... more abstractDrawing on a European cross-national biographical-narrative study of intimate life, this article discusses the complexity of experiences of ‘togetherness’ and ‘apartness’ amongst people in living apart relationships. We explore the five main ways in which interviewees spoke about and understood their current living apart relationships (as: chosen; temporary; transitional; undecided; and unrecognisable), which we argue shows the need for a broader conceptualisation of this form of intimate relationship than is suggested by the established notion of ‘living apart together’. The article points to interviewees’ varying experiences of receiving or being denied recognition and acceptance by others as belonging to a couple, as well as to their differing degrees of desire for, or rebellion against, expectations that living apart relationships should ‘progress’ towards cohabitation.

Gender Studies, Feminism, Sexual citizenship, and Intimate Citizenship

This paper examines how people living apart together (LATs) maintain their relationships, and describes how they view this living arrangement. It draws on a 2011 survey on LAT in Britain, supplemented by qualitative i... more abstractThis paper examines how people living apart together (LATs) maintain their relationships, and describes how they view this living arrangement. It draws on a 2011 survey on LAT in Britain, supplemented by qualitative interviewing. Most LATs in Britain live close to their partners, and have frequent contact with them. At the same time most see LAT in terms of a monogamous, committed couple, where marriage remains a strong normative reference point, and see living apart as not much different from co-residence in terms of risk, emotional security or closeness. Many see themselves living together in the future. However, LAT does appear to make difference to patterns of care between partners. In addition, LATs report advantages in terms of autonomy and flexibility. The paper concludes that LAT allows individuals some freedom to manoeuvre in balancing the demands of life circumstances and personal needs with those of an intimate relationship, but that practices of LAT do not, in general, represent a radical departure from the norms of contemporary coupledom, except for that which expects couples to cohabit.

Intimate Relationships and Living apart together

More Info: Authors: Simon Duncana*, Miranda Phillipsb, Julia Carterc, Sasha Roseneild & Mariya Stoilovad

Journal Name: Family Science

Drawing on a European cross-national biographical-narrative study of intimate life, this paper discusses the complexity of experiences of “togetherness” and “apartness” amongst people in living apart relationships. We... more abstractDrawing on a European cross-national biographical-narrative study of intimate life, this paper discusses the complexity of experiences of “togetherness” and “apartness” amongst people in living apart relationships. We explore the five main ways in which interviewees spoke about and understood their current living apart relationships (as chosen; temporary; transitional; undecided; and unrecognizable), which we argue suggests the need for a broader conceptualisation of this form of intimate relationship than is suggested by the established notion of “living apart together”. The paper points to the varying experiences of receiving or being denied recognition and acceptance by others as belonging to a couple, as well as to the differing degrees of desire for, or rebellion against, expectations that living apart relationships should “progress” towards cohabitation.

Family, Bulgaria, Portugal, UK, Norway, and 3 more

More Info: Authors: Mariya Stoilova, Sasha Roseneil, Isabel Crowhurst, Tone Hellesund, Ana Cristina Santos

Publication Date: 2014

Family studies, Intimacy, Living apart together, Living Arrangements, and Coupledom

More Info: authors: Simon Duncan, Miranda Phillips, Sasha Roseneil, Julia Carter and Mariya Stoilova

Publication Name: The Sociology Teacher, Vol 3 (1): 5-11

Whilst the politics of reproduction have been at the heart of feminist struggles for over a century and a half, their analysis has not yet come to occupy a central place in the interdisciplinary study of citizenship. ... more abstractWhilst the politics of reproduction have been at the heart of feminist struggles for over a century and a half, their analysis has not yet come to occupy a central place in the interdisciplinary study of citizenship. This special issue on Citizenship and Reproduction/ Reproducing Citizens takes up the challenge posed by Bryan Turner in the pages of this journal, when he noted ‘the absence of any systematic thinking about familial relations, reproduction and citizenship’ (Turner 2008, p. 45). However, we take issue with this claim, and argue that there is now a substantial body of scholarship that explores this nexus of practices and political contestations. Nonetheless, Turner is rare amongst ‘mainstream’citizenship scholars working outside feminist or queer frameworks in paying explicit attention to reproduction. Despite the powerful challenges posed by theorists such as Carole Pateman (1988, 1989, 1992), Ruth Lister (1997) and Nira Yuval-Davis (1997) to traditional civic republican and liberal understandings of citizenship that rest on an uninterrogated public/private dichotomy, the complex entanglements and gendered valencies of ‘public’ and ‘private’, ‘political’ and ‘personal’, ‘rational’ and ‘emotional’, and ‘mind’and ‘body’ in constructions and practices of citizenship have been almost exclusively the critical terrain of feminist and queer scholars. And so, the biological, sexual and technological realities of natality, and the social realities of the intimate intergenerational material and affective labour that is generative of citizens, and that serve to reproduce membership of, and belonging to, states, nations, societies and, thus of ‘citizenship’ itself, have largely remained marginal to ‘citizenship studies’…

More Info: authors: Sasha Roseneila, Isabel Crowhurst, Ana Cristina Santos and Mariya Stoilova

Publication Date: Dec 19, 2013

Publication Name: Citizenship Studies, Vol. 17(8): 901–911

This research note aims to extend the discussion on the methodological implications of doing research on intimacy and personal life. Drawing on a comparative study concerned with the intimate lives of those who live o... more abstractThis research note aims to extend the discussion on the methodological implications of doing research on intimacy and personal life. Drawing on a comparative study concerned with the intimate lives of those who live outside the conventional, modern western nuclear family, it reflects on the processes of gaining access to often hard-to-reach populations which informed and influenced the empirical work that we carried out in four European countries.

Research Methodology, Gatekeeping, Intimacy and Personal Life, Negotiating Access, and Unconventionality

Publication Date: Nov 13, 2013

Publication Name: International Journal of Social Research Methodology