Reconfiguring Personal Communities In A ' Divorce Biography '

Scholarly discussion on divorce has largely focused on the detrimental consequences of divorce. This scholarship inadvertently constructs divorce as a tragic life event that destroys individuals and a social problem that threatens the very fabric of society, reinforcing and reflecting common attitudes towards divorce. However, there has been an emerging field of research challenging such academic and popular discourses about divorce.  My study is situated within this new sociology of divorce. It departs from the perspective that divorce signifies moral decadence and focuses instead on the way individuals organise their family life and practices.  My research argues that divorce creates spaces, however fraught, for individuals to construct what I call ‘a divorce biography’. These spaces include the ways in which one terminates an unsatisfying marriage, decides on the terms of divorce, copes with the crisis, organises one’s personal relationships and makes plans for the future.  In this paper, I focus on how Singaporean divorcees, as part of constructing their divorce biography, negotiate their post-divorce relationships with family, friends and other significant others. My paper explores how they exercise choice, navigate around cultural norms and take into account practical considerations as they reconfigure their personal communities for survival, intimacy and belonging. This study shows how divorced individuals might continue to build and enjoy strong and close relationships even after the rupture of their marriage and disruption of their nuclear family unit.