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Understanding Non-Monogamies

  • Price: $125.00 $112.50
  • Hardback: 312 pages
  • Also available in e-Book
  • Published: December 2009
  • ISBN: 978-0-415-80055-6
  • Publisher: Routledge

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Series: Routledge Research in Gender and Society.

Most social scientific work on intimate relationships has assumed a monogamous structure, or has considered anything other than monogamy only in the context of 'infidelity'. Yet, in recent years there has been a growing interest among researchers and the public in exploring various patterns of intimacy that involve open non-monogamy. This volume gathers contributions from academics, activists, and practitioners throughout the world to explore non-monogamous relationships. Featuring both empirical and theoretical pieces, contributors examine the history and cultural basis of various forms of non-monogamy, experiences of non-monogamous living, psychological understandings of relationship patterns, language and emotion, the discursive construction of mono-normativity as well as issues of race, class, disability, sexuality and gender. This volume will be of interest to academics and practitioners working in the social sciences and anyone who is seeking greater insight into the intricacies of non-monogamous relationships.

Table of Contents

Section 1: Situating Non-monogamies 1. Introduction Meg Barker and Darren Langdridge 2. Deconstructing Monogamy: Boundaries, Identities, and Fluidities across Relationships Katherine Frank and John DeLamater Section 2: Representing Non-monogamies 3. Non-monogamy and Fiction Esther Saxey 4. ‘Science Says She’s Gotta Have it’: Reading for Racial Resonances in Woman-Centered Poly Literature Angela Willey 5. Discursive Constructions of Polyamory in Mono-normative Media Culture Ani Ritchie Section 3: Distinguishing Non-monogamies 6. Relationship Innovation in Male Couples Barry D. Adam 7. Swinging: Pushing the Boundaries of Monogamy? Dee McDonald 8. There Were Three in the Bed: Discursive Desire and the Sex Lives of Swingers Shalanda Phillips 9. Geeks, Goddesses, and Green Eggs: Political Mobilization and the Cultural Locus of the Polyamorous Community in the San Francisco Bay Area Hadar Aviram 10. Social Sex: Young Women and Early Sexual Relationships Maya Lavie-Ajayi, Colette D.R. Jones and Lucy Russell Section 4: Intersecting Non-monogamies 11. Paradoxes in Gender Relations: [Post] Feminism and Bisexual Polyamory Christian Klesse 12. Trans and Non-Monogamies Christina Richards 13. ‘Many Partners, Many Friends’: Gay and Bisexual Mormon Men’s Views of Non-Monogamous Relationships José Miguel Montenegro 14. Non-Monogamy in Queer BDSM Communities: Putting the Sex back into Alternative Relationship Practices and Discourse Robin Bauer 15. Asexual Relationships: What Does Asexuality Have to Do with Polyamory? Kristin S. Scherrer 16. Disability And Polyamory: Exploring the Edges of Inter-Dependence, Gender and Queer Issues in Non-Monogamous Relationships Alessandra (Alex) Iantaffi Section 5: Extending Non-monogamies 17. Strategies in Polyamorous Parenting Elisabeth Sheff 18. ‘To Pass, Border or Pollute’: Polyfamilies Go to School Maria Pallotta-Chiarolli 19. Developing a ‘Responsible’ Foster Care Praxis: Poly as a Framework for Examining Power and Propriety in Family Contexts Damien W. Riggs Section 6: Counselling Non-monogamies 20. The Power Mechanisms of Jealousy Pepper Mint 21. Making Friends with Jealousy: Therapy with Polyamorous Clients Dossie Easton 22. Promiscuities: Politics, Imagination, Spirituality and Hypocrisy Andrew Samuels Section 7: Theorising Non-monogamies 23. Conditions of Freedom in Practices of Non-monogamous Commitment Mark Finn 24. Sex, Space and Discourse: Non/monogamy and Intimate Privilege in the Public Sphere Nathan Rambukkana 25. What’s Queer about Non-monogamy Now? Eleanor Wilkinson 26. Love without Borders? Intimacy, Identity and the State of Compulsory Monogamy Jamie Heckert

Author/Editor Biography

Meg Barker is a lecturer in psychology at the Open University and a sex and relationship therapist. She and Darren Langdridge have published Safe, Sane, Consensual: Contemporary Perspectives on Sadomasochism with Palgrave and are now editing a new journal, Psychology & Sexuality, with Taylor & Francis. Meg's research publications focus on sexualities and relationships.

Darren Langdridge is a senior lecturer in psychology at the Open University and a UKCP accredited existential psychotherapist. His research expertise is in sexualities and hermeneutic phenomenology. He has co-edited several books including Safe, Sane, Consensual, and has also authored a number of other books including Phenomenological Psychology: Theory, Research and Method (Pearson Education). He is currently co-editing the new journal Psychology & Sexuality.