Social Science Forum 78 (XXXI)
Internet dating as a project: the commodification and rationalisation of online dating
Tjaša Žakelj, Doris Kocon, Alenka Švab, Roman Kuhar
ABSTRACT: Based on qualitative empirical data from two studies on Internet dating in Slovenia, this paper discusses the social contexts of the Internet dating of heterosexual men and women and homosexual men. Special attention is given to different aspects of the commodification and rationalisation of dating in the process of forming potential (romantic) partnerships. First, we discuss our respondents’ reasons for using the Internet to get in touch with potential (romantic) partners. Second, we focus on the demands and strategies of targeted market- ing in personal profile writing and, finally, on the process of selecting potential partners. Our study shows that the primary understanding of Internet dating among people who engage in it is its economic nature. Together with targeted marketing and the predeter- mined criteria for choosing interesting others, Internet dating can thus be understood as a market that encourages rationalisation and commodification in the process of forming intimate relationships.
KEY WORDS: Internet dating, rationalisation, commodification, partnership, heterosexuality, homosexuality
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The act of erasure: Žižek’s psychoanalytic discourse in the nationalistic construction of the ‘other’
Neža Lipanje
ABSTRACT: The administrative erasure of 25,671 persons in February 1992 represents a highly symbolic act in the process of forming the Slovenian nation-state, namely as a way of inventing the internal enemy. By analysing Žižek’s psychoanalytic discourse on Balkan identity structures we question the intellectuals and their alleged autonomy. The aim of the text is to show that every order is conditioned by its non-entirety, in the sense that in the assumed ‘whole’ there is always at least one element that is excluded yet, at the same time, it appears as a link which establishes this very system.
KEY WORDS: act of erasure, liminal phenomena, national identity production, psychoanalytic discourse, Slavoj Žižek
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The experience of chronic disease and strategies for coping
Lena Kregelj
ABSTRACT: The article focuses on a personal experience of dealing and coping with a chronic disease. We focused on the question of how a patient’s strategies for coping with a chronic disease are defined and, second, on which factors do styles of adjusting to the disease depend. This article is based on the results of quantitative and qualitative research in patients with chronic rheumatic disease. There are two different subgroups of patients that may be differentiated on the basis of social inclusion, their approach to problem-solving and the intensity of how they have adapted their lifestyle to the requirements of the disease. The friendliness of the social environment and having an emphatic relationship with people close to a patient can significantly impact on the patient’s successful adaptation to the disease
KEY WORDS: health, chronic disease experience, strategies for coping with chronic disease
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Urban studies of mining in a foreign land: the role of anthropology
Tjaša Laznik
ABSTRACT: In this article, the author focuses on urban studies in the field of mining, explains ways of anthropological involvement in the field of mining from different angles (States, international corporations in indigenous local communities) and clarifies the role of anthropological discourses. In the second part of the article, the author devotes attention to a group which is only indirectly related to the mining industry. Here shows the importance of anthropological attention even where the effects of the mining industry are not obvious is shown.
KEY WORDS: urban studies, mining, states, corporations, local communities, women