Family Patterns Flashcards
1
Q
Postmodernism (Summary)
A
- Stacey
- Individualisation thesis
- Giddens
- Beck
- Personal life perspective
2
Q
Stacey
A
- Greater freedom has freed women from patrairchy and to shape their family arrangements to meet needs
- Stacey used life history interviews in Silicon Valley.
- Women had often created new types of families that suited their needs better
- Divorce-extended family: members connected through divorce
3
Q
Individualisation thesis
A
- Giddens and Beck influenced by postmodernist ideas
- Traditional social structures have lost their influence over us.
- Fewer certainties about marriage and gender roles
- We choose how to lead our lives.
- Beck: Standard biography has been replaced by ‘do it yourself biography’
4
Q
Giddens
A
- Recently family and marriage has been transformed by greater choice and a more equal relationship between men and women.
- Change due to contraception and feminism.
- Traditional family was held together by laws and norms.
- Couples today define their relationship themselves
Pure Relationship: based on choice and equality (not law, religion and social norms) - Exists only to satisfy needs (happiness, love, sex)
- Choice means less stable
Same sex couples as pioneers: leading towards equal relationships - Weston: same-sex couples created supportive ‘families of choice’
5
Q
Beck
A
- We live in a ‘risk society’ where tradition has less influence and people have more choice.
- Patriarchal family has been undermined by gender equality and individualism.
- Beck and Gersheim identify the ‘negotiated family’ which varies according to members wishes.
- Less stable.
- Zombie family: appears to be alive but in reality is dead
6
Q
Personal life perspective
A
- May believes that Beck and Giddens see ‘an idealised version of a white middle-class man.
- Connectedness thesis: Smart we are social beings so are decisions are always made partly due to society.
- Class and gender: limit our choice
- Structures: limit our choice (Einasdottir)
