Routledge Studies in Social and Political Thought Public Intimacy

This book examines the paradoxical collapse of privacy in contemporary society. The text analyses how personal boundaries are dissolved through digital technologies and how social networks and media technologies encourage individuals to publicly expose their intimate thoughts in search for recognition in a fragmented, modern world. This book examines the paradoxical collapse of privacy in contemporary society. The text analyses how personal boundaries are increasingly dissolved through digital technologies and how social networks and new media technologies encourage individuals to publicly expose their most intimate thoughts and experiences in search for recognition and connection in a fragmented, liquid modern world. Throughout eight focused chapters, this book explores the transformation of community bonds, the exhibition of intimacy online and the rise of emotion- driven politics. It reveals how the constant sharing of private life creates a society dominated by the present moment, where fleeting connections replace deeper relationships and reason is subordinated to emotional impulses, leading to populist and sovereigntist tendencies. Drawing on lucid analysis of the dialectics of the state, the community, machine- based interaction and the loss of intimacy, it thus offers valuable and timely insights into the changing nature of social relationships in late modernity. This analysis would serve as a key reading for readers and students of sociology and philosophy, as well as researchers interested in understanding the social implications of digital culture.