Transnational Geographies of The Heart

Transnational Geographies of the Heart explores the spatialisation of intimacy in everyday life through an analysis of intimate subjectivities in transnational spaces. Draws on ethnographic research with British migrants in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, during a phase of rapid globalisation and economic diversification in 2002-2004 Highlights the negotiation of inter-personal relationships as enormously significant in relation to the dialectic of home and migration Includes four empirical chapters focused on the production of ‘expatriate’ subjectivities, community and friendships, sex and romance, and families Demonstrates that a critical analysis of the geographies of intimacy might productively contribute to our understanding of the ways in which intimate subjectivities are embodied, emplaced, and co-produced across binaries of public/private and local/global space

Series Editor’s Preface vi Acknowledgements vii 1 Introduction 1 2 Geographies of Intimacy 23 3 A Globalising Gulf Region and the British in Dubai 45 4 British ‘Expatriate’ Subjectivities in Dubai 65 5 ‘Community’, Clubs and Friendship 85 6 Sex, Desire and Romance in the Globalising City 106 7 Migration, Domesticity and ‘Family Life’ 126 8 Our Intimate Lives 145 References 155 Index 172