Love and Sexual Relationships in a Globalized World

Abstract

With the development of globalized exchanges, sexual and/or sentimental relationships between developed and developing countries are becoming more and more frequent. Through the comparative study of relationships between and Thai or Malay people, we will see how and Oriental actors use hierarchies of gender, class and race to try to valorise their economic, cultural, social and symbolic capital. In Thailand, lower-class women seek access to financial stability while in the neighbouring country, upper-class women aspire to freedom from local culture. For men, what hides behind their desire of the “other” is a rejection of Occidental values, especially sexual equality, and a return to values considered more stable, traditional, and hierarchical. We will see how love interactions in a globalized context are an instrument to valorise the different forms of capital, in Bourdieu’s sense, and a way to redefine social hierarchies.