Philosophical debates around individualization and the implications for intimacy, reflexivity and identity have occupied a central part of social and cultural theorizing in the West in the last decade. In fact, late modernity has become conspicuously engaged with issues of intimacy, reflexivity and identity. The author analyses the relevance of these debates in the context of contemporary Asia and combines an analysis of significant social theorists including Beck, Giddens, Bourdieu, McNay, Adkins, and Ong with an application of these debates to social, political and cultural contexts. Drawing on empirical research, case studies, global reports, media and academic literature, the book provides a relevant, wide-ranging and contemporary analysis of the debates on Asian culture and society. In the Foreword to the book Bryan Turner comments: 'Professor Brooks shows consequently that the intimate and emotional cultures that have been described by Anthony Giddens and Ulrich Beck with respect to the West have not arrived in Asia or at least that they have not become visible and permanent aspects of the social landscape.'

Ann Brooks is Professor of Sociology and Cultural Studies at the University of Adelaide. She is author of Academic Women (Open University Press, 1997); Postfeminisms: Feminism, Cultural Theory and Cultural Forms (Routledge, 1997); Gendered Work in Asian Cities: The New Economy and Changing Labour Markets (Ashgate, 2006) and co-author of Gender and the Restructured University: Changing Management and Culture in Higher Education (Open University Press, 2001). Her latest book is: Social Theory in Contemporary Asia: Intimacy, Reflexivity and Identity (Routledge 2010). Her forthcoming books include Emotions in Transmigration: Transformation, Movement and Identity (Palgrave 2011) and a co-edited collection on the work of Norbert Elias.