THE PHENOMENON OF POLYAMORY IN MODERN SOCIETY: SOCIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS

In modern society the phenomenon of polyamory arises in terms of growing tendency of personality individualization, crisis in nuclear family, spiritual and moral fragility, increasing feelings of abandonment and loneliness, “shrinking present” and shortening of interpersonal relations due to the extension of social circles and intensified interaction. The paper aims to define the concept of polyamory, its formal and substantive boundaries, to research components of ethos of polyamory, and also to detect prerequisites for the emergence and spread of the phenomenon of polyamory in modern social reality. The analysis is devoted to transformation of intimacy – from classical kind of love to nascent neopostclassical, from romantic relationship through confluent love to polyamory. Besides, it is a demarcation between promiscuity and polyamory. It is also emphasized that postclassical confluent love is in a substantial crisis now – sexuality without love is being transformed into omnisexuality, which has a variety of forms and absence of sense, and then converted to asexuality, transsexuality and love to inanimate objects. In such a case polyamory tries to bridge the crisis of sexuality and reincarnate the elements of history by combination of different sexual practices of postclassical love and spirit of classical love.

1. Anapol D. Polyamory in the 21st century. N.Y., 2010.

2. Apresjan R.G. Slova ljubvi: eros, philia, agape [The words of love: eros, philia, agape] // Filosofija i kul’tura [Philosophy and Culture]. 2012. Vol. 8. N 56. P. 27–40 (in Russian).

3. Bataj Zh. Iz “Slez Erosa” [From “Tears of Eros”] // Tanatografija Jerosa: Zhorzh Bataj i francuzskaja mysl’ serediny XX veka [The tanatography of Eros: George Batay and French thought of mid 20th century]. SPb., 1994. P. 271–308 (in Russian).

4. Bodrijjar Zh. Obshhestvo potreblenija. Ego mify i struktury [The Consumer Society. Myths & Structures]. M., 2006 (in Russian).

5. Bodrijjar Zh. Fantomy sovremennosti [The phantoms of modernity] // Matrica Apokalipsisa. Poslednij zakat Evropy [The Matrix of Apocalypse: The Last Sunset of Europe]. M., 2015. P. 5–116 (in Russian).

6. Beck U., Beck-Gernsheim E. The normal chaos of love. Oxford, 1995.

7. Cascais A.F., Cardoso D. ‘Loving many’: polyamorous love, gender and identity // Gender and Love: Interdisciplinary Perspectives. Oxford, 2012. P. 21–29. URL: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/261872379_%27Loving_Many%27_Polyamorous_Love_Gender_and_Identity (accessed: 18.07.2017).

8. Deri J. Polyamory or polyagony? Jealousy in open relationships. Burnaby, 2011.

9. Featherstone M. The possibility of primitiveness: towards a sociology of body Marks in cool societies // Body Modification. 2005. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781446220207.n3 (accessed: 20.09.2017).

10. Fuko M. Istorija seksual’nosti. T. 2. Ispol’zovanie udovol’stvij [The History of Sexuality. Vol. 2. The Use of Pleasure] // Po tu storonu vlasti, znanija i seksual’nosti [The Other Side of Power, Knowledge and Sexuality]. M., 1996 (in Russian).

11. Fuko M. Istorija seksual’nosti. T. 3. Zabota o sebe [The History of Sexuality. Vol. 3. The Care of the Self]. Kiev; M., 1998 (in Russian).

12. Fuko M. Germenevtika sub’ekta [The Hermeneutics of the Subject]. SPb., 2007 (in Russian).

13. Giddens A. Transformacija intimnosti [The Transformation of Intimacy]. SPb., 2004 (in Russian).

14. Haritaworn J., Klesse C., Lin C. Poly/logue: a critical introduction to polyamory // Sexualities. 2006. Vol. 9. N 5. P. 515–529. DOI: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1363460706069963 (accessed: 03.09.2017).

15. Klesse C. Notions on love in polyamory – elements in a discourse on multiple loving // Laboratorim. 2011. Vol. 3. N 2. P. 4-25. URL: http://ecsocman.hse.ru/data/2011/10/12/1267235503/01_CK.pdf (accessed: 03.09.2017).

16. Klesse C. The spectre of promiscuity: gay male and bisexual non-monogamies and polyamories. L., 2012.

17. Klesse C. Poly economics – capitalism, class, and polyamory // International Journal of Politics Culture and Society. 2014. N 27. P. 203–220. DOI: 10.1007/s10767-013-9157-4.

18. Kleese C. Polyamory and its ‘others’: contesting the terms of non-monogamy // Sexualities. 2016. Vol. 9. N 5. P. 515–529. URL: http://sites.middlebury.edu/sexandsociety/files/2015/01/polyamory4-klesse-polyamory.pdf (accessed: 03.09.2017).

19. Lee J.A. Colours of love: an exploration of the ways of loving. N.Y., 1973.

20. Maffesoli M. Okoldovannost’ mira ili bozhestvennoe social’noe [Enchanted world or Divine Sociality] // SOCIO-LOGOS. M., 1991. P. 274–283 (in Russian).

21. Miller J. Strasti Mishelja Fuko [The Passion of Michel Foucault]. M.; Ekaterinburg, 2013 (in Russian).

22. Noel M.J. Progressive polyamory: considering issues of diversity // Sexualities. 2006. Vol. 9. N 5. P. 602–620. DOI: 10.1177/1363460706070003.

23. Osipova N.G., Chelischev V.I. Social mechanisms and technologies of manipulative management of the person // Moscow State University Bulletin. Series 18. Sociology and Political Science. 2016. Vol. 22. N 4. С. 3–21. DOI: 10.24290/1029-3736-2016-22-4-3-21 (in Russian).

24. Precht R. Ljubov’ [Love]. M., 2011 (in Russian).

25. Riker P. Seksual’nost’: Chudo, zabluzhdenie, zagadka [Sexuality: Miracle, Delusion, Mystery] // Istorija i istina [History and Truth]. SPb., 2002. P. 221–234 (in Russian).

26. Zimmel’ G. Fragment o ljubvi [A Fragment on Love] // Izbrannoe. T. 2. [Selected. Vol. 2]. M., 1996. P. 201–212 (in Russian).