Session 3a: Social Structures, Values and Intimacy
Chair: David White

Intimate Social Values and Economic Transformation: An Interpretation of Qualitative Interviews from Russia, China, and Eastern Germany
Christopher Swader
Graduate School of Social Sciences (GSSS), University of Bremen, Germany

This paper revisits the classical sociological concern about the possible link between the advanced market economy and the desocialization of values.  Many contemporary thinkers, such as Viviana Zelizer and Ronald Inglehart, challenge this link.  However, it is argued that the crucial case for testing such market-sociality hypotheses is the post-communist transformation. Against the backdrop of these transitions to a free-market economic culture, this study empirically explores the changing valuations of face-to-face intimate socialization in Russia, China, and Eastern Germany using data gathered in 2005 and 2006 in the form of qualitative intergenerational interviews.  These three countries are selected within a most-dissimilar case design, which aims to identify common value shifts across three different cultures because of the economic transition to the free market, despite the cultural and historical differences between these societies.  Young successful male entrepreneurs, managers, and businessmen from the cities of Moscow, Shanghai, and Leipzig were selected as the group most-adapted to the new economic system.  Semi-structured interviews explored their valuations of face-to-face communication now and in 1990, whether or not the shift to a market economy impacted their values, and in which ways their values may conflict with one another.  This younger generation’s values are then contrasted with the values found within interviews with the generation above them, their fathers.  The end result is a depiction of how the shift to a market economy may influence values through enhancing the focus on work, consumption, rationality, and personal success at the expense of the valuation of intimate social relationships.  Some of the critical mechanisms of this shift are generational changeover, cultural adaptation, and cognitive dissonance.

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Which Interests are at the Heart of Sex and Relationships Education in Scotland?
Lorna Savage and Rebecca Mancy
Faculty of Education, University of Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom

This paper seeks to address recent and ongoing controversy surrounding Sex and Relationships Education in post-devolution Scotland.  We propose that a stronger emphasis on understanding conceptions of the human person and in particular of the role and place (if any) of love and romantic relationships in education may represent a potential path to relieving tensions.
Although a detailed strategic policy document for Sex and Relationships Education in Scotland does not exist, non-statutory guidelines have been developed at both national and regional levels.  This guidance however, often remains ambiguous, sometimes deliberately so, as a result of the tensions between different ideological positions and social groups.  A clear example of this can be seen when studying the wording of the National Sex and Relationships Education Guidance (2000). This combines normative and apparently non-normative opinions, stating that sex and relationships education should be about “the understanding of the importance of marriage for family life, stable and loving relationships, respect, love and care” but must not be about “the promotion of sexual orientation or sexual activity”.  This particular example came about in the aftermath of the first privately funded referendum to be held in Britain in May 2000 where 86% of Scottish citizens who responded to a postal vote (over 1 million voters and more than those who voted for the New Labour Government) chose to retain the law banning the subject of homosexuality in sex education classes.  Despite the results of the referendum, Scottish politicians proceeded to change the law.  More recently, the consultation document, Enhancing Sexual Wellbeing in Scotland-A Sexual Health and Relationships Strategy, also received a number of strongly polarised responses with various interested parties expressing the view that it was either too liberal or not liberal enough on issues such as marriage and homosexuality.  By addressing the fundamental areas of love we wish to explore the possibility of carving out a space of agreement and consensus in Sex and Relationships Education in Scotland.

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But is it Haram (Religiously Forbidden) When you do it? A Comparison of the Love Laws for Arabs and Americans
Don Love
Department of Mass Communication, American University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates

Through interpersonal experience, mass media, and cultural institutions individuals develop cognitive scripts for romantic behavior. These scripts determine what a person thinks is and is not appropriate (i.e., socially legal) for themselves and others in intimate relationships. This study used free-form responses from 64 romantic couples to determine a typology of laws that govern how love should be communicated by and with romantic partners. Additional data was collected from 234 participants in America and the Middle East comparing how often these laws were applied in romantic relationships and what kind of influence attitudes about arranged marriage and religiosity had on each group.
Results identified five basic love laws: Lovers should (1) express how they feel about each other, (2) be physically intimate, (3) share information with each other, (4) share activities and, (5) help the other person. Both American and Arab participants prioritized the need to express feelings and to be physically intimate. However, Arabs were significantly more likely to share activities and help their partner than were Americans. Participants who valued arranged marriage over ‘love’ marriage emphasized helping the other person over all other laws. Religiosity had significant influence on Arab communication but was not significant for Americans. The laws of physical intimacy and sharing information were not as important to conservative Arabs as they were for non-conservative Arabs. Results of the study are discussed in relation to culture and mass media in the West and Middle East