Cupid in trouble: Romantic love, social control, and social networking

Abstract

This thesis investigates the impact of social control over romantic love. The church will be studied as a case where the controlling of love takes place. More precisely, the research examines the mechanisms of social control by primarily outlining its relations to the churchgoers' social networks and the way in which they network themselves with the church. Taking Foucault's remarks on the modern facets of controlling power, I take into account the self-regulating and productive dimensions of social control. Indeed, it was found that romantic involvement is associated with the informants' conscious will and strategic consideration while being channelled into a particular way. The theoretical question threading through this study is neither whether romantic love is controlled by social institutions such as a church, nor whether romantic love is the mere outcome of individual actions. Rather, this study questions whether social networking is developed into a subtle form of social control that often provides an illusion about the freedom of love.