CFP: The Politics of Romantic Life (MANCEPT)

The Politics of Romantic Life

MANCEPT Workshops, Manchester, 9 – 11 September 2020

Our choices over whom we love and sleep with, and how we love and have sex, are not made in a vacuum. Our relationships are influenced and structured by the political landscape in which we live. There is reason for us to think carefully about the social norms that guide our relationships and the social forces that influence to whom we are attracted. Romantic relationships typically occur between people from the same social class, the same race, and the same age bracket. Arguably, therefore, they play a role in reinforcing social categories which promote inequality. As Elizabeth Brake (2012) writes, our relationship choices are shaped by sexism, racism, heteronormativity and amatonormativity (the prioritisation of romantic relationships over other caring relationships), all of which are oppressive structures that the state has constructed and continues to uphold.

Marriage is an obvious way in which the state gets involved in people’s relationships and reinforces social norms. Who can marry and what a marriage should look like are questions that are shaped by the state. Laws surrounding marriage have always been a reflection of, but also a contributor to, wider societal views about relationships and social structures more generally. Women having no rights to own property in marriage, for example, contributed to how both men and women saw their position in society and sexist ideas constructed and reinforced by historical unjust laws continue to have a lingering impact today.

The first same-sex marriage took place in the UK in 2014; the consequence of a long, hard battle for same-sex couples to be given equal status to opposite-sex couples. However, marriage law is arguably still problematic, and currently could be seen to marginalise or discriminate against asexuals, aromantics, polyamorists, and people with alternative visions of marriage. There have thus been calls for marriage law to expand further, or change completely. For example, Cheshire Calhoun has argued that polygamy should be legalised (2005), Claire Chambers (2017) has argued that state-recognised marriage should be abolished and replaced with piecemeal, practice-based regulation, and Brake (2012) has argued that it ought to be possible to divide up the bundle of rights and obligations that are transferred by marriage, so that people can have ‘minimal marriages’ with anyone with whom they share caring relationships.

In this workshop, we will consider some of the political questions related to love and sex. Papers are welcome on the following questions, or on any other topic related to the political aspects of love and sex (the list below is by no means exhaustive):

·        Are love, sexual desire, and attraction matters of justice?

·        What does a morally praiseworthy romantic life look like?

·        Should the state privilege certain kinds of personal relationship?

·        What is marriage?

·        Should marriage be modified or abolished?

·        Should plural marriages be recognised?

·        Could marriages be temporary?

·        Can the state promote better relationships? 

·        How is romantic life shaped by social and political change?

·        What is the future of romantic life?

We aim to have a friendly and inclusive workshop, with an emphasis on constructive discussion, so don’t hesitate to apply with works-in-progress. Each speaker will have a session lasting 1.5 hours. We recommend a talk of 45 minutes, with 45 minutes for questions, but can be flexible about this.

Submission Guidelines:

Please send an abstract of up to 500 words to [email protected] and [email protected] by 5pm Monday the 11th May.

We will let applicants know if their paper has been accepted by May 31st.

Registration for this conference will open in June. All participants must register in order to attend. This year’s fees are £240.00 for academics and £135.00 for graduate students and retirees.

The deadline for bursary applications (available to current graduate students/early-career researchers and retirees only) will be the 14th June, and successful applicants will be informed by the 21st June.

Only people accepted to present on a panel should apply for bursaries. We do not allocate bursaries ourselves, however, please state in your application to our panel whether you intend to apply for a bursary.

We look forward to reading your abstracts!

Luke Brunning and Natasha McKeever