Mapping Intimacy in Families

Abstract

In this chapter I aim to open out key theoretical debates on intimacy. I return to some of the ideas and understandings of intimacy that were presented in chapter 4 and ask questions of these conceptual frameworks through empirical data from Behind Closed Doors. It is not my intention to find fault with any one model, instead my aim is to critically engage with these various conceptualisations in order to demonstrate where theory-data tensions may arise. Researchers in the area of family studies tend to approach fieldwork with an open mind rather than setting out to prove a particular hypothesis. In fact, it comes as little surprise that in research that has employed deductive reasoning, testing theoretical models against data, researchers have quickly found that data extend beyond the parameters of theory. For example, when Libby Plumridge and Rachel Thomson (2003) examined two longitudinal datasets using Anthony Giddens’ ideas of reflexivity and self-identity, they found that while these ideas and conceptual ‘tools’ were useful as a starting point, they had to be operationalised in order to address empirical research. ‘In practice the data outgrew the theory, which we found spoke primarily to a particular theoretical interpretation of social change, rather than the ways in which lives change in practice’ (Plumridge and Thomson 2003: 221–2).