Overview

This book provides deep insight into intimacy and distance in the complex, globalised world through the newly coined concept of couples living apart together transnationally (LATT).  Based on a review of the past four decades’ seminal studies and narratives from a qualitative empirical study, including both heterosexual and same-sex couples, it shows intimacy can be maintained without geographical proximity. The book has a rich, layered, and nuanced exploration of LATT couples' experiences of relationship maintenance across distance and time through diverse ways, such as digital emotions, online sexual activity, and meaning–making through spirituality, which challenge existing Eurocentric conceptualisations of intimacy and relationships. It also reveals an array of “good practices” for relationship maintenance across countries, which can inspire other couples and practitioners. Thus, the book is an important resource, not only for academics in the disciplines of psychology, anthropology, cultural studies, family science, sociology, migration, and communication but particularly useful for practitioners dealing with couple relationships, such as counselors, social workers, and mental health advisors. It is also relevant for international organizations and multinational corporations working with couples living apart together transnationally. “The implications of this book for ‘how we live now’ are clear – in a more closely connected and mobile world, the possibility of living our most intimate relationships across distance will affect increasing numbers of us… the book’s informative, theoretical, and practical messages have valuable lessons for many of us now and in the future.”     Dr Lucy Williams, University of Kent, the UK “Living Apart Together Transnationally (LATT) Couples: Promoting mental health and intimacy” gives us insights into the everyday lives of couples living apart together (LAT) in a contemporary world characterized by globalisation, and pandemics that have affected border controls and migration policies in different countries. Rashmi Singla invites us to challenge the way we understand intimate relationships that are connected to physical proximity and provides us with innovative ways to maintain emotional and physical intimacy despite geographical separation. Sayaka Osanami Törngren Associate Professor of International Migration and Ethnic Relations, Malmö University, Sweden Dr. Rashmi Singla’s book “Living Apart Together Transnationally” addresses a very important problem many modern couples encounter living apart in different countries. The increasing globalization of the job market and mass migration in the past four decades have made this topic more important than ever before. However, research about love and life in such conditions is still limited. The research presented in this book reveals some new qualitative research findings about how partners maintain health and intimacy in such challenging conditions. This book presents novel and invaluable research for scholars in the area of love and couple relationships. Victor Karandashev, Ph. D., Professor of Aquinas College, Michigan, The U.S.A. Dr. Rashmi Singla's work, 'Living Apart Together Transnationally (LATT),' stands as a profoundly empirical exploration of long-distance couples spanning international borders. The book provides captivating revelations into the lives, intimacies, and spiritual dimensions of such relationships. Offering an interdisciplinary approach, it establishes a robust groundwork for further investigations in this emerging field. Lise Paulsen Galal, PhD, Associate Professor in Intercultural Studies, Roskilde University, Denmark. How important is proximity in intimate relationships when partners live apart in different countries? This question sits at the core of this timely book, which offers new insights, in part through the range of areas considered, but also through its challenge to existing Eurocentric conceptualisations of intimacy and relationships.  Using narratives collected in in-depth interviews, including through the period of Covid-19, Dr. Rashmi Singla provides rich accounts of 'living apart together' (LAT), but vitally adding a transnational perspective (LATT) Dr Tina Miller, Professor of Sociology, Oxford Brookes University, UK. Author of 'Motherhood: Contemporary Experiences and Generational Change'. Cambridge University Press (2023) The book “Living Apart Together Transnationally (LATT) Couples: Promoting Mental Health and Intimacy” is based on an empirical study on couples living apart transnationally. Collecting data on couples is difficult, and for that alone, I appreciate the work done by the author. Given that migration and mobility of families and couples is notlikely to come to an end with the pandemic, a study that brings together experiences of couples compelled to live apart would be illustrative. The book refers to using social media for couples to connect with each other. This is useful information in the social and digital worlds that we live in. The phenomenon of migration and couples having to live apart is an ongoing one, which is likely to be of interest to many academics and practitioners from host and receiving countries. Professor Sujata Sriram Dean School of Human Ecology, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai , India This ground-breaking book provides new knowledge of how the increasing number of couples living apart together in different countries, the so-called LATT couples, cope with their situation and how they can maintain intimate relationships despite the distance. Based on in-depth interviews with heterosexual and same-sex couples spread all over the world – and including the author’s own lived experiences - the book convincingly challenges the conventional wisdom that cohabitation is a necessary condition for intimacy. Through a novel theoretical framework, Rashmi Singla highlights changing gendered orders and the challenges that meet long-distance relationships crossing the Global North-Global South divides.   Drude Dahlerup, Professor of Political Science, Stockholm and Roskilde Universities, Sweden and Denmark. Living Apart Together is a timely book that addresses the complexities of love, sex, marriage, intimacy, and transnational distancing. Through qualitative research, this excellent book offers answers to current and enduring questions of immigration, migration, and border crossings. Dr. Rashmi Singla’s research and scholarship open new ways of understanding how intimate relationships are governed by post-modern capitalism, which challenges socio-economic, geo-political, and cultural forms of being intimate. Thebook takes us on a journey of  “intimate”  discoveries, which unfold through its various chapters on how people can nurture desire, intimacy, and love even while living apart, either as a matter of personal choice or out of professional necessity. In essence, Living Apart Together is a critical text in answering the larger question of what it is to be human in today's digital world. Roy Moodley, Associate Professor, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, Department of Applied Psychology and Human Development, University of Toronto, Canada. “Living Apart together” is a timely book that addresses the complexities of love, sex, marriage, intimacy, and transnational distancing. Through qualitative research this excellent book offers answers to current and enduring questions of immigration, migration, and border crossings. Dr. Rashmi Singla’s research and scholarship open up new ways of understanding how intimate relationships are governed by post-modern capitalism which challenges socio-economic, geo-political and cultural forms of being intimate. The book takes us on a journey of ‘intimate’ discoveries which unfold through its various chapters on how people can nurture desire, intimacy and love even while living apart either as a matter of personal choice or as “professional necessity”. In essence, “Living Apart Together” is a critical text in answering the larger question of what it is to be human to today digital world.  

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9783031522048

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Rashmi Singla is an Associate Professor in Psychology and Interdisciplinary Health Studies, also affiliated with the Global Humanities program,  at Roskilde University, Denmark. She is educated in Denmark and India, with a long-standing career in teaching, researching psychology, and counselling/psychosocial intervention. She has authored Ethnic Minority Youth in Denmark: About Their Psychosocial Situation (co-author Julio Arenas) (1995); Youth Relationship, Ethnicity & Psychosocial Intervention (2004); The One and Only - How Ethnic Minority Youth in Denmark Form Intimate Partnerships (2006); Now and Then - Life Trajectories, Family Relationships, and Diasporic Identities (2008); and Intermarriage and Mixed Parenting: Promoting Mental Health & Wellbeing (2015), along with several chapters in books and journals. Additionally, she is involved in an array of international projects and organisations related to couple/ family life,migration/ transnationalism, and decolonisation of knowledge.

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