RUPC #10: The dark side of intimacy

Lambert, Alex. (2020) The dark side of intimacy. Surpllus Pty Ltd in co-operation with the Research Unit in Public Cultures, the University of Melbourne, RUPC #10/Surpllus #13.5

rupc 10
The dark side of intimacy

Today's world encourages an opposition between intimacy and cosmopolitanism. Yet the realities of conflict across the globe at both micro and macro scales also encourages us to question the possibility of a cosmopolitan politics. In RUPC #10: The dark side of intimacy, Alex Lambert teases out these issues, arguing that both intimacy and cosmopolitanism exist. Intimacy can be non-allergenic, and often welcomes difference, replenishing itself by drinking from the inexhaustible mystery of the Stranger. Yet this is not a guarantee. In fact, there will often be moments where the intimate and the non-intimate remain at odds. In order to understand this, the concepts ‘intimacy’ and ‘cosmopolitanism’ must be deconstructed. They can no longer stand in the form they have been popularly cast in.

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The dark side of intimacy