Critical Perspectives on 21st Century Friendship: Polyamory, Polygamy, and Platonic Affinity





Price: $24.95

Page Count: 184

Publication Date: October 2019

ISBN: 978-1-77258-207-9

This anthology takes an international and cross-cultural approach to discussions about friendship by curating a set of diverse contributions situated in a transnational context. These interdisciplinary contributions take friendship seriously as a subject of feminist and legal study and hone in specifically on polyamory, polygamy, and Platonic affinities, considering the sexual and non-sexual ties of affect and affinity that link a diverse range of contemporary friendships that exist cross-culturally. This highly original book teases out commonalities between experiences of affinity that are enmeshed with the differences between social, national, legal, and cultural frameworks that surround these relationships of affinity and affect, and troubles forms of government and legal regulation that prohibit or fail to recognize the consensual interdependence connecting diverse forms of human friendship.

"This edited collection provides a rare and truly interdisciplinary study of friendship as a theoretical concept. The editors traverse law, popular culture and academia as the contributors explore compassionate concepts that deserve more scholarly attention. The volume is a refreshing journey that helps provide a much needed optimistic frame in an age of cynicism and propaganda.”

-- Richard Jochelson
Associate Professor
Co-Editor in Chief, Criminal Law Edition of Manitoba Law Journal & Robsoncrim.com

The topic of friendship is significant in the lives of many women, and becomes ever more important as a field of scholarly inquiry due to the revolutionary potential of feminist friendship. It becomes clear throughout Critical Perspectives on 21st Century Friendship that friendship is often a means through which women resist structures of oppression. The authors also make clear that friendship - in particular friendship amongst women - is understudied and misunderstood. Much of the narrative around “girl” friendships is that they are difficult, rife with jealousy and backstabbing, and nearly impossible for “cool girls” to maintain. This highlights the stereotypically gendered ways that female friendships are understood, against which this manuscript provides an interesting and necessary rebuttal.

-- Jen Chisholm, Assistant Professor, Department of Women's Studies, Lakehead University.

• Sally Param: “Responding and adjusting: Exploring the friendship dilemma through the qualitative lens of educated Indian women in Malaysia

• Rebecca Bromwich, “ Blurred Lines and Spaces for Renewal: Love, Family and Friendship - Reconsidering Polygamy Under the Law in Canada”.

• Josephine L. Savarese, “Research Project Reality Show”

• Stephens, “Friendships in the Japanese Language: Intersubjectivity Through Mothering”

• Ferguson and King, “The Third Shift Writers Collaborative’s Ibeji Model: Friendship Bonds as Grist and Soul’s Salvation in the Scholarly Writing Process”

• Eileen Doherty and Kari Wilson, “Women ‘Playing House’: An In-Depth Examination of Adult Female Friendship on Television”

• Rebecca Bromwich and Thomas Harrison, “Protecting the Public in the Twilight of Trials: Ways Forward Towards Access to Justice in Relational Conflict via the Regulation of Mediator.”

• Myrina Bromwich, “Friendship”

• Jens Urban, “ Polygamy and Human Rights in France and In Canada”

Editors Bios 

Rebecca Bromwich, PhD, LLM, LLB  is a lawyer, legal scholar, and mother of four. She is Director of the Graduate Diploma in Conflict Resolution Program in the Department of Law and Legal Studies at Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, as well as a practicing lawyer in the fields of criminal and family law.

Olivia Ungar is an honours student in the law and legal studies program at Carleton University, in Ottawa, Canada.

Noémie Richard is currently completing her 2nd year as an undergraduate honours student in the Bachelors of Global and International Studies at Carleton University, specializing in Global Law and Social Justice.