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Family diversity - Coggle Diagram
Family diversity
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Modernity, Functionalism / New Right
Family diversity has led to more breakdowns & more people dependent on an over generous welfare state
Criticisms:
- wrong to assume biological roles, gender doesn't determine good parent
- Oakley believes their response is a negative response to the feminist movement
- feminists argue New Right's ideas are based on patriarchy, oppression of women and gender inequality
- class and income are main factors of educational failure / childhood issues, not single parents, many single parents just as good as 2
- wrong to say marriage better than cohabitation, up to individual couple
- Carol Smart says poverty leads to family breakdown not a breakdown of trad values. Cohabitation us higher among poorer couples as they cannot afford to marry. More likely to split up as they have more financial problems, not due to cohabitation
The government needs to encourage couples to marry & stay married through using policies, laws and tightening welfare benefits
Benson - marriage Is better than cohabitation as people less likely to split up if married than cohabiting
The nuclear family performs 2 irreducible functions, any other types are dysfunctional - nuclear family is only correct as it supports our biological and natural needs/roles as men & women
Oppose gay marriage and lone parenthood, believe it leads to many social problems such as educational failure and crime
Late/Post Modernity
Key:
- globalisation
- uncertainty/unpredictable
- consumerism
- more individual freedom / choice
- more diversity (gender / sexuality / politics)
- media & hyper-reality
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lots of changes but some old structures still significant, some sociologists feel we have changed so much we are now in postmodernity
- social media
- broader communication
- post-truth era, anyone can say what they want (relative truth)
- greater access to news
Focused on individualisation above all else
Postmodernity, Giddens and Beck
Giddens
Choice and equality:
- contraception & women's rights made relationships between men and women more equal
- relationships no longer held together by pregnancy, children, laws against divorce, lack of opportunities for women
- free to create own lives, relationships or to leave
Pure relationships:
- based on choice & equality
- couples stay together because they want to, not from tradition etc
- relationships become part of our self discovery & fulfil our needs
- relationships more risk of ending as we work towards self improvement & changing life choices
Same sex relationships:
- not influenced by old barriers & pre-exisitng norms so they are new (in being legally & socially accepted)
- this means they have more freedom to create their own roles & roles, make sure relationship to make sure it fits their needs
- supported by Western, same-sex couples created families of choice from friends, lovers and biological kin, negotiate families
Late modernity has diluted the impact of romantic love. Also plastic sexuality (removal of child-bearing from sex), caused by reflexivity (reflect on ones needs & desire to improve) and family no longer everything. Confluent love also begins (only exists if benefits individuals, a transaction). More fluid sexuality due to reflexivity (try find out who they are)
Individualisation thesis
- Beck and Giddens
- traditional structures such as class, ethnicity and gender have lost influence over us
- we now choose our own life course, we please ourselves not the community
- we no longer fulfil traditional roles but we create our own life course
Beck
Risk Society:
Tradition has less influence & people less choice. Risk society contrasts with earlier time when roles more fixed & people had less choice. We are now constantly worried about risk due to more choice & social media
Negotiated family
Patriarchal society undermined by greater gender equality & individualisation. Caused negotiated family, dont conform to norms but needs of family - they negotate
Zombie family
However, negotiated family is unstable as people can leave easily if dissatisfied, and heightened awareness of risk/uncertainty Not a haven you think but a fake/dead version of old family.
Criticisms of Giddens:
Only applicable to those not bound by tradition (white, middle class).
Ignores structural factors that shape an individuals behaviour e.g. class
Smart Connectiveness Theory
Modernity, Chester
The most important change has been from the conventional nuclear family to the Neo-conventional family, other changes are not particularly significant
Family diversity has been exaggerated, the main change is to dual earner families
- evidence of this is that most adults marry and have 2 children, cohabitation is simply a temporary stage before marriage, most parents are involved in bringing up their children
The Neo-conventional family is a dual earner family similar to Young and Willmot's symmetrical family
Most people will live at some point in their life in a nuclear family, it is still the most common family type, therefore diversity is not as major as it appears
Modernity
Key:
- clear social structure (class / gender)
- nuclear family
- jobs for lfie
- nation states and poltiics
- trust in science
- belief in 'progress'
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- laborious work
- patriarchy
- start of education and voting for everyone
- structured/predictable
Trapped yet seeing into of new progressive ideas
Postmodernity, Judith Stacey
Divorce extended families
- used life history interviews to create a series of case studies in Silicon Valley
- she found that women there rejected the trad house wife role and used their new freedom to create their own lives & families
- lots of divorce extended families, members who are connected by divorce, no longer need marriage e.g. ex-mother in law
- shows that postmodern families are diverse and created to suit the individuals needs
- shows that freedom and choice of post-modernity has benefitted women
Postmodernity in general
Old divisions and certainties are breaking down
families no longer clear entities, different people are different times, reconstituted families
- Stacey's subjects tied to multiple family types, not just one singular one
Traditional theories do not explain the society of today
traditional structural theories assume the family being explained is the trad nuclear family, this is not relevant anymore
It is not possible to put things together as one category
you cannot make general statements about "the family"
People choose from whatever period in history or whatever culture they like
some choose nuclear family, some clustering, some single
- Mrs Staceys subjects tried more flexible arrangements, cohabiting, Christian commutes and lesbian marriages
Loss of faith in rational thought and certainty, today anything goes
people create families the want, the way they want them, dont follow rules
People are connecting across traditional boundaries
globalisation and geographical mobility mean families spread around world, quality families with family members of choice
- devot Christians in the study mix feminism & fundamentalism
Modernity, The Rapoports
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Diversity is central to understanding the family as we have moved away from the nuclear family due to pluralistic society. Diversity is a positive response to changes in society, and peoples changing needs and wishes.