This book conceptualises the lived experience of intimacy in a world in which the terms and conditions of love and friendship are increasingly unclear. It shows that the analysis of the 'small world' of dyads can give important clues about society and its gendered makeup.

Introduction 1. Modernity, Intimacy, and Friendship 2. Friends, Friendship, and Sociology 3. Love, Friendship, and Freedom 4. Friendship, Intimacy, and the Self 5. Gender and the Love-Friendship Paradox 6. The Love-Friendship Paradox and Cross-Sex Friendship Conclusion: Friendship's Embedded Freedom

Harry Blatterer is Senior Lecturer in Sociology at Macquarie University, Australia. His previous book publications include Coming of Age in Times of Uncertainty (2009), and Modern Privacy: Shifting Boundaries, New Forms (2010), co-edited with Maria Markus and Pauline Johnson.