Relating Intimacies: Power and Resistance

308 Pages·1999·30.49 MB·English

by  Julie Seymour, Paul Bagguley (eds.)

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*
from the same publishers
Relating Intimacies
Power and Resistance
Edited by
Julie Seymour
Lecturer in Social Research
School of Comparative and Applied Social Sciences (CASS)
University of Hull
and
Paul Bagguley
Senior Lecturer in Sociology
Department of Sociology and Social Policy
University of Leeds
First publIshed in Great Britain 1999 by
MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and London
Companies and representatives throughout the world
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978-0-333-74764-3 ISBN 978-1-349-27683-7 (eBook)
DOI10.1007/978-1-349-27683-7
First publIshed in the United States of America 1999 by
ST. MARTIN'S PRESS, INC.,
Scholarly and Reference Division,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010
ISBN 978-0-312-22184-3
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Relating intimacies: power and resistance / edited by JulIe Seymour,
Paul Bagguley.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-312-22184-3 (cloth)
1. Interpersonal relations-Great Britain. 2. Interpersonal
conflict-Great Britain. 3. Intimacy (Psychology) 4. Family-Great
Britain. 5. Marriage-Great Botam. 6. Same-sex marriage-Great
Britain. 7. Work and fannly-Great Britam. I. Bagguley, Paul.
II. Seymour, JulIe.
HM132.R365 1999 99-18738
CIP
© British Sociological Association 1999
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10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 00 99
Contents
List of Tables vii
List of Figures viii
Acknowledgements ix
Notes on the Contributors xi
1 Relating Intimacies: Power and Resistance 1
Julie Seymour and Paul Bagguley
PART I CONSTRUCTING AND RECONSTRUCTING
INTIMATE RELATIONSHIPS
2 Shifting Boundaries and Power in the Research Process:
the Example of Researching 'Step-Families' 13
Rosalind Edwards and Jane Ribbens with Val Gillies
3 Partnership Rites: Commitment and Ritual in
Non-Heterosexual Relationships 43
Jeffrey Weeks, Brian Heaphy and Catherine Donovan
4 Children Need but Mothers Only Want: the Power of
'Needs Talk' in the Constitution of Childhood 64
Steph Lawler
PART II REGULATING INTIMACY: THE ROLE OF
STATE LEGISLATION IN INTIMATE RELATIONSHIPS
5 The Age of Consent and Sexual Citizenship in the
United Kingdom: a History 91
Matthew Waites
v
vi Contents
6 'I Hadn't Really Thought About it': New Identities/
New Fatherhoods 118
Carol Smart and Bren Neale
7 State Power, Children's Autonomy and Resistance:
the Juridical Context 142
Carole Smith
PART III POWER AND RESISTANCE IN INTIMATE
RELATIONSHIPS
8 'That's Farming, Rosie ... ': Power and Familial Relations
in an Agricultural Community 171
Pia Christensen, Jenny Hockey and Allison James
9 What Difference Does 'Difference' Make? Lesbian
Experience of Work and Family Life 189
Gillian A. Dunne
10 Sex, Money and the Kitchen Sink: Power in Same-Sex
Couple Relationships 222
Brian Heaphy, Catherine Donovan and Jeffrey Weeks
11 'I Won't Let Her in my Room': Sibling Strategies of
Power and Resistance around Computer and Video
Games 246
Sara McNamee
12 Prostitutes, Ponces and Poncing: Making Sense of
Violence 261
Jo Phoenix
Index 290
List of Tables
2.1 Household characteristics of step-family couples 25
9.1 Employment hours: birth mothers and co-parents
with children under five years old 198
9.2 Household employment combinations 199
11.1 'Who owns the machines in your house?' 248
11.2 'Who decides when and where you can play?':
by family with mixed siblings, sex and location 250
11.3 'Who decides when and where you can play?': by family
with no siblings, sex and location 251
11.4 'Who decides when and where you can play?': by family
with sisters only, sex and location 252
11.5 'Who decides when and where you can play?': by family
with brothers only, sex and location 252
11.6 Ownership of machine by sex and siting of machine in
the home 256
vii
List of Figures
9.1 Time-use of respondents by differences in hours of
employment: households with children under 17 206
9.2 Time-use of fathers and mothers by differences in hours
of employment: households with children under 12 207
9.3 Time spent by fathers and mothers on un-waged work, by
differences in hours of employment: households with
children under 12 208
9.4 Time spent on un-waged work by respondents, by
differences in hours of employment: households with
children under 17 209
11.1 'Who decides when and where you can play
computer and video games?': all secondary-school pupils 250
viii
Acknowledgements
Relating Intimacies comprises revised versions of papers originally
presented at the British Sociological Association (BSA) Annual
Conference, which was held at the University of York, 7-10 April 1997,
on the theme 'PowerlResistance'. This volume is one of four produced
from the papers given at the conference. The companion volumes are:
Consuming Cultures: Power and Resistance, edited by Jeff Hearn and
Sasha Roseneil; Practising Identities: Power and Resistance, edited by
Sasha Roseneil and Julie Seymour; and Transforming Politics: Power
and Resistance, edited by Paul Bagguley and Jeff Hearn.
The conference was one of the largest ever held by the BSA.
Approximately 333 papers were presented, which made the task of
selecting papers for publication particularly difficult. We would like
to thank all the conference participants for their patience while we
read the papers; inevitably there were many papers that we would
have liked to have included but were unable to, in trying to make this
and the other volumes into coherent collections. The contributors to
this volume are particularly thanked for revising their papers so swiftly
and efficiently in response to editorial comments and suggestions. We
would also like to thank Valery Rose who carried out the copy-editing
for Macmillan.
The theme of the conference - 'Power/Resistance' - is both a long
established theme within the discipline of sociology and one that has
seen increased interest and re-evaluation in recent years. This sense of
continuity and change was present throughout the conference. The
four volumes bring together papers on major sub-themes that emerged
from the conference, and as such it is probably fair to say that they
give an indication and taste of some of the major preoccupations of
sociology, particularly British sociology, in the late 1990s.
We are extremely grateful to the wonderfully good-humoured and
patient staff at the BSA office both in Durham and at the conference
itself - Nicky Gibson, Judith Mudd, Jean Punton (until November
1996), and especially Nicola Boyne. We also thank the Conference
Office and the Department of Sociology at the University of York for
their advice and hospitality, and the student helpers at the conference
for their invaluable assistance. Special thanks are due to Sarah Irwin
ix