Changing relations: Achieving intimacy in a time of social transition.

1. Defining and measuring social change
2. The myth of modernisation?
3. More beautiful than a monkey: the achievement of intimacy
4. Friends and social networks
5. Sex and the modern city
6. Marriage and the family
7. Modeling social change and relationships

Goodwin critically reviews the literature on modernisation and contemporary relationships, challenging simplistic conclusions about the ‘end of intimacy’ and the inevitable decline of personal commitment. Reviewing work from across the globe, he also contends that adaptation to rapid change is moderated by individual, social class and cultural variations, with consequently differing impacts on everyday relations. In doing so he brings together contemporary debates in psychology, sociology and the political sciences on coping with social change and its impact on personal relations.