Abstract
This essay brings together some lines of thought contained in Maria Markus's ‘Lovers and Friends’ (2010) and ‘Decent Society and/or Civil Society?’ (2001), and, on that basis, explores possibilities for thinking about friendship in the context of contemporary social change. I begin by situating current problems concerning the semantics of friendship in their historical trajectory. I then go on to elaborate friendship's ‘normative flexibility’, that is, its relative immunity to reifying societal pressures. Finally, I reflect upon the connexions between friendship's normative particularities and Markus's elaboration of ‘decency’.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 36-43 |
| Number of pages | 8 |
| Journal | Thesis Eleven |
| Volume | 101 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2010 |