Abstract:

Why does an institution in such seeming decline as marriage (according to national census statistics) appear at the center of ideology and aspiration on the international stage? Marriage politics played a strange role in the "wedge" politics of the 2004 election in the U.S.--and have been at the center of a range of debates over welfare "reform," single parent families, same sex partnerships, and celebrity lifestyles. These issues have appeared, in different guises and with different ramifications, in Canada, Britain and Europe as well. What does all this clamor reveal about the purely symbolic vs. the material functions of marriage for neoliberal citizenship? How do race, gender, class and sexuality function in the framing of the issues of coupledom and household formation? How have marriage politics played out in relation to the politics of "privatization," war and imperialism, "values" and morality? Inquiring minds want to know......

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