Abstract
Political polarization not only threatens democracy, but also disrupts family lives, causing clashes between family members with discordant political orientations. This article examines how individuals negotiate family conflicts during political divides, by focusing on the Anti-Extradition Bill Movement in Hong Kong. Based on data drawn from interviews conducted with 37 self-identified protest participants, I develop the concept of intimate distance in order to capture the way in which the participants negotiated political disagreements with their immediate family. Individuals make peace with their families during a high-risk movement, not merely by restoring closeness, but also by adjusting the intimate distance with their family members in three interconnected aspects: everyday family life, cognitive and emotional aspects. Individuals employ a repertoire of practices, together with emotion work and boundary work, to alleviate confrontations, rebuild consensus, and contain political risks. This study contributes to a more nuanced conceptualization of intimacy and family conflict resolution, and unravels the impact of family interactions on the intensification or alleviation of ideological and affective polarization in relation to the interpersonal and societal level.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Journal | Current Sociology |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | E-pub ahead of print - 22 Feb 2024 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© The Author(s) 2024.
Funding
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The project was supported by the Faculty Research Grant sponsored by Lingnan University and the Postdoctoral fellowship award from the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China (LU PDFS2021-3H01).
Keywords
- Anti-extradition bill movement
- Hong Kong
- family
- intimacy
- political polarization
- social movement
