ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explores the four-letter word "like" and what it does for and with us in the 21st century. It discusses a new or perhaps simply newly apparent relationship to the work of academia in the midst of ongoing economic and ideological assaults on higher education and education writ large. The book also discusses the institution of K–12 education, since it is a space and time when "friendship" and "fraternity" in the sense that James Alison insists upon is–perhaps first and often most fundamentally–developed and contested. It explains what it means to be "liked" by someone or something on the job market. The book focuses on contemporary sexual politics where love has been a battlefield for decades, as same-sex marriage has been fought for and, at least for the time being, legalized in the United States and elsewhere.
