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Modern Privacy

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Modern Privacy Shifting Boundaries, New Forms Edited by Harry Blatterer Macquarie University, Australia Pauline Johnson Macquarie University, Australia and Maria R. Markus University of New South Wales, Australia

Selection and editorial matter Harry Blatterer, Pauline Johnson and Maria R. Markus 2010 Individual chapters their respective authors 2010 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2010 978-0-230-24611-9 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6 10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2010 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave and Macmillan are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-31927-5 DOI 10.1057/9780230290679 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Modern privacy: shifting boundaries, new forms/edited by Harry Blatterer, Pauline Johnson, Maria R. Markus. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. 1. Social psychology. 2. Privacy. I. Blatterer, Harry. II. Johnson, Pauline, 1953 III. Markus, Maria R., 1936 HM1033.M63 2010 302 dc22 2010027493 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 ISBN 978-0-230-29067-9 (ebook)

Contents Acknowledgments List of Contributors vi vii Introduction 1 Harry Blatterer, Pauline Johnson, Maria R. Markus 1 Privacy, Secrecy, Intimacy, Human Bonds, Utopia and Other Collateral Casualties of Liquid Modernity 7 Zygmunt Bauman 2 When Privacy Goes Public: New Media and the Transformation of the Culture of Confession 23 Günter Burkart 3 Images of Intimacy in Feminist Discussions over Private/Public Boundaries 39 Pauline Johnson 4 Privacy and Law 59 Arthur Glass 5 Social Networking, Privacy, and the Pursuit of Visibility 73 Harry Blatterer 6 Can Solitude be Recaptured for the Sake of Intimacy? 88 Maria R. Markus 7 The Erotic Imaginary, Autonomy, and Modernity 102 John Rundell 8 What s Wrong with Therapy Culture? 117 Pauline Johnson 9 Privacy and Work 133 Norbert Ebert 10 Narcissism and the Emergence of the Network Society 149 Eli Zaretsky Conclusion: Futures of Modern Privacy 167 Harry Blatterer, Pauline Johnson, Maria R. Markus Index 175 v

Acknowledgments Our thanks go to the contributing authors whose generosity of spirit was equaled only by their scholarship. Bernard Leckning not only provided invaluable assistance during the editing stages. Equally important was his critical, constructive engagement with the intellectual premises of the text. We are grateful to Senior Commissioning Editor Philippa Grand at Palgrave Macmillan for her interest in and support of the project from the outset. Harry Blatterer Pauline Johnson Maria R. Markus vi

List of Contributors Zygmunt Bauman is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the Universities of Leeds and Warsaw and among the leading critical thinkers of our time. In 1992 he was awarded the European Amalfi Prize for Sociology and Social Sciences. In 1998 he received the Theodor W. Adorno award of the city of Frankfurt. He is the author of over 50 books including The Art of Life (Cambridge: Polity, 2008), The Individualized Society (Cambridge: Polity, 2001), and Liquid Modernity (Cambridge: Polity, 2000). Harry Blatterer is Lecturer in the Department of Sociology at Macquarie University. He is author of Coming of Age in Times of Uncertainty (New York and Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2007, 2009). Günter Burkart is Professor of Sociology at the Leuphana Universität, Lüneburg. He is author of numerous publications on family and intimate relationships, gender, the life course, social theory, the sociology of the body, and new media. His most recent books include Familiensoziologie (Köln: UTB, 2008) and Handymania: Wie das Mobiltelefon unser Leben verändert hat [Cell Phone Mania: How the Cell Phone has Changed our Lives] (Frankfurt: Campus, 2007). Norbert Ebert is Lecturer in the Department of Sociology, Macquarie University. His research centers on theories of individualization and the experience of work. He is author of Identität aus dem Nichts: Überlegungen zu Schopenhauer, Nietzsche und Scheler, [Identity from Nothingness: Reflections on Schopenhauer, Nietzsche and Scheler] (Norderstedt: BoD, 2003). Arthur Glass is Associate Professor in Law, University of New South Wales. His research focuses on the philosophy of law, constitutional law and migration law. He is author of numerous articles and co-author of Australian Constitutional Law (Sydney: Butterworths, 1994, 1998) and Australian Federal Constitutional Law: Commentary and Materials (Sydney: LBC, 1999). Pauline Johnson is Associate Professor of Sociology at Macquarie University. She has published widely in feminist theory and on the work of Jürgen Habermas. Her major publications include Feminism as Radical Humanism (Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 1994) and Jürgen Habermas: Rescuing the Public Sphere (Routledge, 2006). She is co-editor of Culture and Enlightenment: Essays for Gyorgy Markus (Ashgate, 2002). vii

viii List of Contributors Maria R. Markus, a member of the Budapest School of critical theorists, taught sociology at the University of New South Wales, where she is now a visiting scholar in the School of Social Sciences and International Studies. She is the author and co-author of several books and has published over 60 papers in various volumes and scholarly journals. Among these those most directly connected to the present volume are Decent Society and/or Civil Society, Social Research, vol. 68, no. 4, 2001, In Search of a Home, Contemporary Perspectives in Critical and Social Philosophy (Leiden: Brill, 2004), and Lovers and Friends: Radical Utopias of Intimacy, Thesis Eleven, no. 101, 2010. John Rundell is Associate Professor in the School of Philosophy, Anthropology and Social Enquiry, Melbourne University. He is a past editor of Thesis Eleven, and current editor of Critical Horizons and The Social and Critical Theory Book Series (Leiden: Brill). He is co-editor of Critical Theory After Habermas: Encounters and Departures (Leiden: Brill, 2004), Contemporary Perspectives in Social and Critical Philosophy (Leiden: Brill, 2004), and Recognition, Work, Politics New Directions in French Critical Theory (Leiden: Brill, 2007). Eli Zaretsky is Professor of History at the New School for Social Research. His interests are in twentieth-century cultural history, social and cultural theory, the history of capitalism, and the history of the family. His most recent book is: Secrets of the Soul: A Social and Cultural History of Psychoanalysis (New York: Random House, 2005). He is the editor of The Polish Peasant in Europe and America (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1984), and the author of Capitalism, the Family and Personal Life (New York: Harper and Row, 1976).