Personal Lives

There is no doubt that the ways in which people are living their personal lives are changing quickly and dramatically. Within this context, 'personal life' refers to the relationships which people value highly and where they can find intimacy, support, understanding and companionship. These important areas of our lives are explored in this chapter as we look at those parts of social life that have tended to be buried underneath 'the family' in sociology - emotions, intimacy and sexuality, for example (Smart 2007)