Kraj intimnosti? Suvremenost, globalizacija i ljubavne veze
The End of Intimacy? Love Life in the Age of Globalization

Summary/Abstract: The central aim of this paper is to describe the sources and unintended consequences of the new intimate risks, those that are not exogenously (socioculturally), but endogenously determined. These new risks arise exclusively from personal wishes, expectations and preferences, as well as from intimate interactions between postmodern individuals. The defining difference between “old” and “new” intimacy is a disappearance of the regulating system of social norms due to modern processes of de-traditionalization. Freed from social expectations, which used to structure romantic relationships, the process of intimacy-building becomes a deinstitutionalized and fluid personal project – a part of the (post)modern self-project – recently termed “the pure relationship” (A. Giddens). We argue that the pure relationship, which is presently the dominant model of romantic involvement, entails a number of (new) intimate risks leading to a deficit (and fragmentation) of intimacy. At the same time, as we point out in the concluding section, the pure relationship does contain a potential for true intimacy.

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