Romantic relationships across boundaries: global and comparative perspectives

ABSTRACT

In response to the mass globalization of the twenty-first century and associated migration, a recent boom in social-scientific research has analyzed various manifestations of ‘binational’, interreligious and interracial romantic relationships in the present and recent past. This special issue seeks to historicize this research by drawing on key case studies from around the world and across time and building on relevant historiography and theoretical literature. It seeks to chart how intermarriage and related relationships took shape: who participated in these unions? How common were they, and in which circumstances were they practiced (or banned)? With a global, diachronic and interdisciplinary perspective, we also aim to question some of the categories behind these relationships. Central to these issues, we argue, is the question of boundary formation. Here, we draw on social-scientific research that has emphasized multiple boundaries involved in the creation of identity and groups. We also highlight the intersectionality of those boundaries, meaning that notions about ethnicity, religion, gender and social class often overlap and intersect in various ways when it comes to relationships. Contributions to this collection tap a range of related questions, such as how did geographical boundaries – for example, across national lines, distinctions between colonies and metropoles or metaphors of the ‘East’ and the ‘West’ – shape the treatment of intermarriage? What role have social and symbolic boundaries, such as presumed racial, confessional or socio-economic divides, played? To what extent and how were those boundaries blurred in the eyes of contemporaries? How have bureaucracies and law contributed to the creation of boundaries preventing romantic unions? Romantic relationships, we suggest, provided a key test case for boundary crossings because they brought into sharp relief assumptions not only about community and assimilation, but also about the sanctity of the intimate sphere of love and family.     

‘There is such a shelter in each other’: women looking for homes in Zadie Smith's White Teeth,On Beauty and NW

ABSTRACT

This paper focuses on the different ways in which home is experienced by the female characters of the diaspora in Zadie Smith's White Teeth (2000), On Beauty (2006) and NW (2013). In On Beauty, one of the characters declares: ‘There is such a shelter in each other’ (93). This implies that the sense of home may not be tied to a place, but to the intimacy of relationships. In these novels, Zadie Smith portrays women whose feelings of belonging to a place are threatened, due to their geographical displacements or to their complex transcultural identities. Using Deleuze and Guattari's concepts of territorialization and reterritorialization, I’ll explore how concepts of home and diaspora are reconfigured in Smith's novels.     

From faith to race? ‘Mixed marriage’ and the politics of difference in Imperial Germany

ABSTRACT

Intermarriage was a key site for testing politics of difference within the multicultural German Empire. Across the German states in the mid-nineteenth century, marriage between members of different religions frequently proved impossible. Until various civil marriage laws were introduced between the 1840s and 1870s, marriage remained within the remit of the church. As a consequence, marrying across confessional lines was rarely permitted. The implications were clear: marriage was seen as the embodiment of one’s culture – defined primarily in confessional (alongside socio-economic) terms, and it was also viewed as a key transmitter of culture by producing new generations of faithful observers of particular denominations. As a country divided between three confessions, religion in mid- to late nineteenth-century Germany proved an important aspect of difference within the new German nation state. By the end of the nineteenth century, following the introduction of civil marriage, mass waves of migration, the growth of urbanization and the expansion of the German overseas empire, the connotation of ‘mixed marriage’ in Germany appeared to have shifted. It remained a code for crossing confessional lines, but its resonance had changed. By the late nineteenth century, ‘mixed marriage’ had come to characterize another kind of cultural mixing as well: that between races, both at home within Germany and abroad within its colonies and diasporic outposts. And, between 1905 and 1912, ‘mixed marriage’ between Germans and ‘natives’ had been banned in German Southwest Africa, East Africa and Samoa. Why and how was intermarriage a flashpoint in debates on German identity politics at the turn of the twentieth century? As this article shows, intermarriage in the German Empire mattered to families, broader communities, and legislators because it was a pivotal means through which social groups formed, interacted and maintained boundaries at a time when visions of Germany were expanding.     

Gendering the border effect: the double impact of Colombian insecurity and the Venezuelan refugee crisis

Abstract

In the Colombian–Venezuelan borderlands, the reconfiguration of armed group presence and mass migration create and reinforce conditions of high violence and risk. Against this backdrop, we ask: What are the gendered security implications of the double crisis in the borderlands? Based on fieldwork in four regions along the border, this article argues that the border effect is gendered; the very factors that coalesce to produce this effect exacerbate existing gendered power dynamics, particularly as these relate to gender-based violence. Accordingly, this article demonstrates the specific ways in which the border – as a facilitator, deterrent, magnet and/or disguise – reinforces experiences of gendered insecurity in this region. The article finishes by outlining the implications for other international borderland settings.     

Validation of the Attitudes About Aggression in Dating Situations (AADS) and the Justification of Verbal/Coercive Tactics Scale (JVCT) in Spanish Adolescents

The aim of this study was to analyze the psychometric properties of two instruments that assess attitudes justifying use of aggression in adolescents?? dating relationships: the Attitudes About Aggression in Dating Situations (AADS) and the Justification of Verbal/Coercive Tactics Scale (JVCT). The sample was made up of 2,856 adolescents from different high schools of Madrid. Results supported the three-factor structure for the AADS and the six-factor structure for the JVCT, which was consistent with the theory and with previous research. As expected, the relation between attitudes and aggressive behavior was between small and moderate but significant in most cases. Furthermore, attitudes differed depending on the type of violence, the respondent??s sex, and on whether aggression is carried out by a man or a woman. Finally, the potential applications of these two scales are discussed, and it is concluded that both constitute useful tools to assess justification of aggression in dating relationships in young couples.     

The sick accused: forensic and emergency aspects in the courtroom

Evaluation of the fitness of an accused person to participate in legal proceedings is a classic forensic activity. Before the trial, the forensic expert will already assess any preexisting somatic and psychological illnesses and give a written expert opinion describing the condition of the accused at the time of the examination and assessing whether he is fit to stand trial. Nevertheless, decompensation or aggravation of a disease may occur--especially in stress situations as they are to be expected for an accused in the courtroom--so that apart from the current evaluation of the state of health of the accused, emergency treatment may occasionally become necessary in the courtroom. The article tries to answer the question how the expert can meet this challenge.     

Boundary-spanning in emerging technology research: determinants of funding success for academic scientists

Emerging technologies, including nanotechnologies, are generally seen as those latest scientific innovations which have a potential impact on industry structure, and commercialization and economic potential. Work in this area of emerging technologies has distinct boundary spanning characteristics from the perspective of academic science. First, many emerging technologies involve collaboration of scientists across disciplinary boundaries. Second, because of the commercializability of many emerging technologies, scientists may interact more often with industry throughout the research and commercialization process. We ask, what are the boundary-spanning characteristics of scientists engaged in emerging technology research and how do those characteristics matter in obtaining funding in this area? We examine the characteristics of academic scientists in the United States who are employed in research intensive institutions and who are engaged in funded research in the area of emerging technologies. We address the factors that predict their grant success in areas of emerging technology. Findings reveal that interdisciplinary activities and industry orientation are both important in predicting funding in areas of emerging technology. Moreover, the findings imply that the emergence of new technologies may offer opportunities for women in low representation fields.