Title:
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"Distance" makes the heart grow fonder? : transnational intimacy - contracting South Asian marriage in Northern Ireland
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Recently, scholars have described the consequences of transnational living all families
and children: Research, however, has neglected to address in detail the lives of
transnational couples still negotiating their relationships. Furthemore, existing research
only touches on the lives of third generation South Asians in Northern Ireland and their
cnnection to India in relation to contracting a marriage. This dissertation fills the gap
by analysing the intimate experiences of South Asians who reside in Northern Ireland,
and investigates how a developing autonomy through migration affects patterns of
intimacy and marriage choices. My research sought to examine couples who were
perceived by themselves and their families to be culturally and/or geographically
distant, which constitute two (sometimes overlapping) variations in the organisational
arrangements of South Asian marriage. Ethnographic data and interviews demonstrate
how South Asians living in Northern Ireland transform meanings of love and intimacy
through technology and constructions of selfhood to accommodate these spatial and
temporal separations. The dissertation highlights how rather than South Asians feeling
'between cultures', they form an assured sense ofpersol1.hood. What they
simultaneously struggle with and strategise, however, is sta111S attainment through
'doing modernity' whilst upholding traditions, as displayed in the processes and
performances of contracting a marriage. As a result, rethinking intimate relations has
been key for South Asians in the transnational context.
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