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.

- 368 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub
The Purchase of Intimacy
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Information
Publisher
Princeton University PressYear
2009Print ISBN
9780691130637
9780691124087
eBook ISBN
9781400826759
Table of contents
- Cover Page
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Dedication Page
- 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
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Yes, you can access The Purchase of Intimacy by Viviana A. Zelizer in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Social Sciences & Economic Theory. We have over 1.5 million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.