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How do people have relationships when they are apart, or develop them when they've never even met? From MySpace and weblogs to romance and sexuality, this book draws together a range of studies on "remote relationships", investigating the intricate, intimate ways that people forge connections online. The term 'remote' refers to the technologies that facilitate forms of communication, and also underlines the lack of physicality involved in these relationships, developed at a distance. Using empirical data, these collected essays explore a wide variety of relationships, examining the methodological and ethical issues that researchers face. Remote Relationships in a Small World , part of a new generation of online studies, responds to the need for research that focuses on social relationships.
List of contents
Contents: Jayne Armstrong: Researching DIY Grrrl (E)Zine Culture: A Methodological and Ethical Account - Andrea J. Baker/Monica T. Whitty: Researching Romance and Sexuality Online: Issues for New and Current Researchers - Janet Finlay/Lynette Willoughby: Exploring Online Learning Relationships: A Case Study in Higher Education - Simeon J. Yates/Eleanor Lockley: Moments of Separation: Gender, (Not So Remote) Relationships, and the Cell Phone - Natilene Bowker: Participating in the World (Wide Web): Social Connections for People with Disabilities - Samantha Holland/Julie Harpin: "It's Only MySpace": Teenagers and Social Networking Online - Lilia Efimova/Andrea Ben Lassoued: On How Relationships Develop via Weblogs: A Co-constructed Narrative - Naomi Rosh White/Peter B. White: Remote Relationships as Theatre: Travellers and Group E-mails - Rhiannon Bury: Remotely Embodied Friendships in Female Fan Communities - Jonathan Paul Marshall: Cybermind: Paradoxes of Gender and Relationship in an Online Group - David Jacobson: "Two Levels of Personal": The Cultural Context of Intimacy in Instant Messaging - Dennis D. Waskul/Phillip Vannini: Ludic and Ludic(rous) Relationships: Sex, Play, and the Internet - Sarah Earle/Keith Sharp: Online Relations between the Men Who Pay for Sex - Marcus Wigan: A Remote Marriage: The Theory and Practice of Being Apart and Staying Together.
About the author
The Editor: Samantha Holland is a Research Fellow in the Carnegie Research Institute at Leeds Metropolitan University and has a Ph.D. from Sheffield Hallam University in the United Kingdom. She is the author of
Alternative Femininities: Body, Age and Identity (2004).
Report
"This volume provides excellent analyses of a wide range of mediated relationships from some of the best researchers in the field. Anyone interested in online relationships, sociality, or identity will want to own this book." (Lori Kendall, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
