New Social Ties: Contemporary Connections in a Fragmented Society [Paperback]

Deborah Chambers draws on the metaphor of friendship as a strategy for exploring contemporary changes in informal social ties. She traces the shift from fixed and permanent ties of family, neighbourhood and community to fluid and transient ties typified by computer mediated communication.Acknowledgements Introduction Changing Ideas about Social Ties Freedom and Choice in Personal Relationships Hegemonic Masculine Identities and Male Bonds Feminine Identities and Female Bonds The Decline and Rise of 'Community' Network Society Virtual Intimacy and Online Sociality The Politics of Social and Personal Relationships References IndexDEBORAH CHAMBERS is Professor of Communication and Cultural Studies at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, where she teaches social and cultural theory and media analysis. She is the author of Representing the Family, joint author with Linda Steiner and Carole Fleming of Women and Journalism and joint author with Richard Johnson, Parvati Raghuram and Estella Tincknell of The Practice of Cultural Studies. Her current research includes changing family values and sexual morality in a global context and media and journalism.