This book offers a comparative study of the lives of young adult women and their mothers in Hong Kong and Britain. Set against the backdrop of debates regarding the consequences of late modern social change for family and intimate life, the authors consider the challenges of exploring these issues across differing cultures. The book focuses on a range of topics including: mother-daughter relationships; romantic, sexual and marital relationship trajectories; and the imagined futures of daughters.
Throughout, it is argued that differences between Hong Kong and Britain are not attributable merely to local culture and tradition, but are the consequence of wider social, economic and political conditions through which cultural continuity and change are mediated. Women Doing Intimacy will be of interest to students and scholars of family life and gender studies.

Presents empirical data deriving from in-depth life history interviews with young adult women and their mothers, and focus groups with the former, in two very different socio-cultural locations Provides an intervention into academic debates around globalisation, modernity and intimate life by addressing Asian contexts, and considering intimacy beyond couples and households Captures the meaning of change, and generational continuities and discontinuities in women's life trajectories

Autorentext

Stevi Jackson is Professor of Women's Studies at the University of York, UK.

Petula Sik Ying Ho is Professor of Social Work at the University of Hong Kong.

Inhalt

Introduction: The Genesis of a Transnational Collaborative Project. - 2. Conceptualising and Investigating the Gendered Consequences of Modernity in Britain and Hong Kong. - 3. Interconnected Histories: Locating Women's Lives in Time and Space. - 4. What Makes a Family? Meanings and Practices. - 5. Mother-daughter Relationships. - 6. Love and Sex in Marital and Non-marital Contexts. - 7. Imagined Futures in Uncertain Times. - 8. Concluding Reflections.