The purchase of intimacy / Viviana A. Zelizer.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Zelizer, Viviana A. Rotman.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Couples--Finance, Personal.

Couples.

Interpersonal relations--Economic aspects.

Interpersonal relations.

Financial security.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (368 p.)

Edition:

Course Book

Place of Publication:

Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, c2005.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In their personal lives, people consider it essential to separate economics and intimacy. We have, for example, a long-standing taboo against workplace romance, while we see marital love as different from prostitution because it is not a fundamentally financial exchange. In The Purchase of Intimacy, Viviana Zelizer mounts a provocative challenge to this view. Getting to the heart of one of life's greatest taboos, she shows how we all use economic activity to create, maintain, and renegotiate important ties--especially intimate ties--to other people. In everyday life, we invest intense effort and worry to strike the right balance. For example, when a wife's income equals or surpasses her husband's, how much more time should the man devote to household chores or child care? Sometimes legal disputes arise. Should the surviving partner in a same-sex relationship have received compensation for a partner's death as a result of 9/11? Through a host of compelling examples, Zelizer shows us why price is central to three key areas of intimacy: sexually tinged relations; health care by family members, friends, and professionals; and household economics. She draws both on research and materials ranging from reports on compensation to survivors of 9/11 victims to financial management Web sites and advice books for same-sex couples. From the bedroom to the courtroom, The Purchase of Intimacy opens a fascinating new window on the inner workings of the economic processes that pervade our private lives.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Prologue

Chapter 1. Encounters of Intimacy and Economy

Chapter 2. Intimacy in Law

Chapter 3. Coupling

Chapter 4. Caring Relations

Chapter 5. Household Commerce

Chapter 6. Intimate Revelations

References

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [309]-345) and index.

ISBN:

9786612157790

9781282157798

1282157795

9781400826759

1400826756

9780691124087

0691124086

OCLC:

438735618