Course description
Popular culture is fascinated by stories of singlehood and friendships in urban settings. Television shows like Sex and the City (SATC), Broad City, Friends, My Brilliant Friend, along with films as the Bridget Jones series, Frances Ha, The Intouchables and many more are distributed worldwide and enjoy tremendous commercial success. Additionally, a wide variety of digital magazines, blogs and social media sites are predominantly preoccupied with topics related to singlehood and friendships. The goal of this course is to develop a critical approach to the study of singlehood and friendships in different urban contexts and to understand the impact of global changes on single person’s identities and friendships. We will also explore how of gender, age, race, sexual orientation, ability and class are determined and intersect with each other in today's global cities. Case studies will vary from rural-to-urban migrant workers in Shanghai, access and mobility of single women in Delhi, Friendship in a ‘Russian bar in London and Brazilian immigrants negotiating friendship ties in Lisbon.
Readings will consist of cultural studies, feminist, sociological theories as well as ethnographies of singlehood and friendships in different urban settings. Specific topics will include (among others): singlehood and friendships in different social and urban contexts, aloneness, individualism and togetherness as well as the how global discourses of neo-liberalism, feminism and consumerism structure social experiences and personal relations.

Evaluation method
Attendance and Class Participation 10%
Paper 90%

Bibliography
BUTCHER, M., (2018), Defying Delhi’s enclosures: strategies for managing a difficult city, Gender, Place & Culture, 25(5), 727-742.
BROSIUS C., (2017), Regulating Access and Mobility of Single Women in a “World Class”-city: Gender and Inequality in Delhi, India. In: Gerhard U., Hoelscher M., Wilson D. (eds) Inequalities in Creative Cities, (p. 239-260). Palgrave Macmillan, New York.
HARTAL, G. (2019), Gay tourism to Tel-Aviv: Producing urban value? Urban Studies, 56(6), 1148-1164.
IP, P. T. T. AND PEEREN, E., (2019), Exploiting the distance between conflicting norms: Female rural-to-urban migrant workers in Shanghai negotiating stigma around singlehood and marriage. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 22(5–6), 665–683.
LAHAD, K., (2017), A Table for One: A Critical Reading of Singlehood, Gender, and Time. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
MALYUTINA, D., (2018), Friendship in a ‘Russian bar’ in London: An ethnography of a young Russian-speaking migrant community. Urban Studies, 55(3), 589-604.‏
Taylor, Y., & Falconer, E., (2015), ‘Seedy bars and grotty pints’: Close encounters in queer leisure spaces. Social & Cultural Geography, 16(1), 43-57.‏
TORRESAN, A., (2011), Strange bedfellows: Brazilian immigrants negotiating friendship in Lisbon. Ethnos, 76(2), 233-253.‏
JIN, XIUMING, AND RISA WHITSON, (2014), Young Women and Public Leisure Spaces in Contemporary Beijing: Recreating (with) Gender, Tradition, and Place. Social & Cultural Geography 15 (4): 449–69.