Love Capital and the Nurturance Gap

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter seeks to activate the principle of (scholarly) innovation by critically evaluating the forms of love capital being accumulated by people in capitalist economies. We situate love, according to the principle of historical specificity, in the neoliberal culture, and then examine the principle of heterogeneous groups and agents through the six love styles and the five critical factors, especially involving the principle of circular and cumulative causation due to multifactors and magnified processes. Then we apply the principle of contradiction vis-à-vis neoliberal capitalism undergoing the nurturance gap, disembedded economy and freedom constraint that inhibit holistic love capital. The principles of path dependence and uncertainty are then connected to instabilities, especially involving serial monogamy in the United States. Some of the core principles of IEPE provide a vantage point for scrutinising the problems involved in stimulating holistic love capital in the contemporary environment.KeywordsHistorical specificityCircular and cumulative causationContradictionInnovationUncertaintyHeterogeneous groups & agentsPath dependenceLove capitalNurturance gapDisembedded economyNeoliberalismHegemony & uneven development