MOBILIZING INTIMATE RELATIONSHIP - RESEARCH NETWORK

The research network aims to establish an innovative research area on contemporary interpretations of intimate relationship. The network started an initiative of Kornelia Hahn and Mona Röhm and aims to bring international scholars together to exchange their research within the field of intimate relationships, develop innovative approaches, and work on joined projects.

The research is based on processes of actively producing intimacy in globalized societies. It is relevant since the capability of (re-)establishing and sustaining intimate relationship is increasingly subject to a ‘normalizing’ order. At the same time, it is based on sophisticated challenges to create individual, unique, seemingly socially detached bonds with ‘intimate’ others.  

The research field focuses on four dimensions of mobility:

• the social construction of ‘intimacy’ from the viewpoint of different and diverse interpreters (individuals, role expectations, collective agents, discourses etc.)
• the dynamic of signifying practices in the context of opportunities, resources, constraints, markets, media etc.
• transcultural experiences due to transcending social, geographical, discursive, or mediated boundaries while constructing intimate relationships
• (changing) normative and subjective concepts of intimacy

In respect to these dimensions, we develop an innovative methodology suited for the challenges of the research field:

• emphasis on the negotiation process of intimate relationships
• empirical interlinkages of diverse interpretations of intimacy
• research in various social and cultural contexts
• research which integrates perceived and/or imagined sexual, bodily, ethnic, and cultural belongings

Network Coordination: Mona Röhm, mona.roehm(at)sbg.ac.at

New members are welcome! Please feel free to share your thoughts, call for paper, or other relevant information with us!

MEMBERS

Kornelia Hahn - Professor for Sociological Theory, Paris Lodron University Salzburg/ Austria
Research interest: Theorising Media/Body, Intimate Relationship, Digitalisation, Public/Private
kornelia.hahn(at)sbg.ac.at 

Yener Bayramoğlu – PostDoc Researcher at the Alice Salomon University Berlin Research interest: Digital media, migration, intersectionality, affect theory, queer studies bayramoglu(at)ash-berlin.eu

Daniel Cardoso – Research Fellow, Manchester Metropolitan University / LUSÓFONA University
Research interest: consensual non-monogamies, BDSM, social movements, new media, youngsters
danielscardoso(at)gmail.com

Christian Klesse - Reader in Sociology, Co-Lead of Research Groups CIGS (Contemporary Intimacies, Genders, and Sexualities) within RCASS (Research Centre for Applied Social Sciences), Manchester Metropolitan University, UK.
Research interest: consensual non-monogamies, gender and sexual politics, bisexualities, LGBTQI+ transnational activism, queer film festivals
c.klesse(at)mmu.ac.uk

Andrea Newerla - Research Assistant / Decentral Women's and Equal Opportunities
Commissioner
Research interest:  Intimacy & Dating-Apps, Emotions, Governmentality Studies, Aging Society
andrea.newerla(at)sowi.uni-giessen.de

Nilanjan Raghunath - Assistant Professor of Sociology, Singapore University of Technology and Design
Research interest: Economic Sociology, Sociology of Family, Sociology of Technology
nilanjan(at)sutd.edu.sg

Mona Röhm - Research Assistant and PhD Fellow, Paris Lodron University Salzburg
Research interest: Intimate Relationships, Gender, Sexualities, Migration, Social and Cultural Norms
mona.roehm(at)sbg.ac.at

Martin Stempfhuber - Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Würzburg
Research interest: Privacy, Intimate Relationships, Media Sociology, Sociological Theory, Romantic Comedies
Martin.Stempfhuber(at)uni-wuerzburg.de

Elene Svanidze - Student of Governance and Social Sciences at Free University of Georgia
Research interest: Relationships; Sexuality; Modernity; Intimacy
Esvan16(at)freeuni.edu.ge

Katherine Twamley - Associate Professor of Sociology, UCL
Research interest: Love; inequalities; agency; relationality; gender Katherine.twamley(at)ucl.ac.uk

Jenny van Hooff - Senior Lecturer, Manchester Metropolitan University
Research interest: Couples, friendship, intimacy, commitment, love
j.van-hooff(at)mmu.ac.uk