The Sexual Organization of the City - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0226468976 ISBN 13: 9780226468976

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 2005

Synopsis

Drawing on extensive surveys and interviews with Chicago adults, Edward O. Laumann and his colleagues show that the city is, in the face of pop culture evidence to the contrary, a place where sexual choices and options are constrained. From Wicker Park and Boys Town to the South Side and Pilsen, the editors observe that sexual behavior and partnering are significantly limited by such factors as the neighborhood you live in, your ethnicity, your sexual preference, and the circle of friends to which you belong. In other words, the social and institutional networks that city dwellers occupy potentially limit their sexual options by making different types of sexual activities, relationships, or meeting places less accessible.

"The Sexual Organization of the City is billed as a sort of academic 'Sex in the City'—though one that examines a more diverse slice of metropolitan life. Over three years, sociologist Edward O. Laumann and his colleagues questioned 2,114 people in four Chicago neighborhoods on everything from how many partners they'd had in their lives and where they met them to whether they were cheating. . . . The result is yet another glimpse of American sexual paradoxes."—Christopher Shea, Boston Globe

About this title

From the Inside Flap:

We think of the city as a place where anything goes. Take the sensational fantasies and lurid antics of single women on Sex in the City or young men on Queer as Folk, and you might imagine the city as some kind of sexual playground—a place where you can have any kind of sex you want, with whomever you like, anytime or anywhere you choose.

But in The Sexual Organization of the City, Edward Laumann and company argue that this idea is a myth. Drawing on extensive surveys and interviews with Chicago adults, they show that the city is—to the contrary—a place where sexual choices and options are constrained. From Wicker Park and Boys Town to the South Side and Pilsen, they observe that sexual behavior and partnering are significantly limited by such factors as which neighborhood you live in, your ethnicity, what your sexual preference might be, or the circle of friends to which you belong. In other words, the social and institutional networks that city dwellers occupy potentially limit their sexual options by making different types of sexual activities, relationships, or meeting places less accessible.

To explain this idea of sex in the city, the editors of this work develop a theory of sexual marketplaces—the places where people look for sexual partners. They then use this theory to consider a variety of questions about sexuality: Why do sexual partnerships rarely cross racial and ethnic lines, even in neighborhoods where relatively few same-ethnicity partners are available? Why do gay men and lesbians have few public meeting spots in some neighborhoods, but a wide variety in others? Why are African Americans less likely to marry than whites? Does having a lot of friends make you less likely to get a sexually transmitted disease? And why do public health campaigns promoting safe sex seem to change the behaviors of some, but not others?

Considering vital questions such as these, and shedding new light on the city of Chicago, this work will profoundly recast our ideas about human sexual behavior.

About the Author:

Edward O. Laumann is the George Herbert Mead Distinguished Service Professor of Sociology at the University of Chicago. He is coauthor of The Social Organization of Sexuality and coeditor of Sex, Love, and Health in America, both published by the University of Chicago Press. Stephen Ellingson is assistant professor of sociology at Hamilton College. Jenna Mahay is a postdoctoral fellow in the Population Research Center at the University of Chicago. Anthony Paik is a doctoral student in the Department of Sociology at the University of Chicago. Yoosik Youm is assistant professor of sociology at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0226468976
• ISBN 13: 9780226468976
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 435
• Editor: Laumann Edward O., Ellingson Stephen, Mahay Jenna, Paik Anthony, Youm Yoosik