Family Policy Flashcards
What are the three ways the family is a unit of reproduction
Emotional support
Socialisation
Physical care
What did parsons say about understanding families
Family exists for the socialisation of children and emotional and psychological support for adults - especially male workers
The family has become the isolated nuclear family
Different family members have different functions
What are Marxist critiques of the functionalist view of the family
The family supports capitalist society
Domestic labour debate - housewife as cheap labour
The family as an oppressive institution
What are feminist critique of the functionalist view of the family
Public/private divide - split between the public domains (makes) and the private domain (females)
The ‘black box’ - hidden nature of the family, cannot make assumptions about what is inside without opening the box and looking inside
Gender and power - the family as a site of unequal gender power relationships
What are the two ways the family is an economic unit
Unit of consumption
Unit of production
What are the three functions of the family
Reproductive unit
Economic unit
Ideological unit
Who states that ‘the major significance of the family in Britain today is ideological’. The family is seen as ‘naturally give and as socially and morally desirable
Barrett and mcintosh
What did Wilmott and Young study and find out
Studied families in east London
Found they still relied heavily on extended families
What did Morgan look at in ‘family practices
Meanings in family life
Active rather than passive
Nature of family relationships and family negotiations
Family moralities
Who said ‘family is a facet of social life, not a social institution, it represents a quality rather than a thing’
Morgan
Who spoke about the pure relationship
Giddens
What is defined as ‘a situation where a relationship is entered into for its own sake, for what can be derived by each person from a sustained association with another, and which is continued only in so far as it is thought by both parties to deliver enough satisfaction for each individual to stay within it
The pure relationship
What are the three types of love Giddens talked about
Economic love
Romantic love
Confluent love
What did Giddens mean by economic love
Marriages were contracted on economic circumstances
What did Giddens mean by romantic love
The search for the life time partner, the soul mate
How did Giddens describe Confluent love
Active, contingent and democratic
How did Smart and Neale criticise the pure relationship
Doesn’t deal with the difficulties of separating and moving on
The nuclear family ideal is backed up by very powerful institutional structures
Moving from one partner to another ignores the effect on children
Having children makes relationships more complex on all levels including emotional and financial
How did Jamieson criticise the pure relationship
If these changes had really taken place we would have seen a much greater transformation in social divisions and inequalities
Evidence suggests that pure relationships are at best only possible for the lucky few
Pure relationships do not allow for the very messy and asymmetric character of people’s real lives
What did beck and beck-gernsheim say about relationships
Increasing individualisation
Social fear of risk
Trying to find security in a precarious environment
The search for the right way to live
What did beck and beck-gernsheim say about love
Provides us with a sense of personal validity and worth
Depends on an active agent, making choices
Is not justified on formal or traditional lines but on emotional and individual ones
Is founded on itself
Is security
Is a blank that lovers must fill in
Requires consent not force
Is ultimately subjective
What did beck and beck-gernsheim say there is instead of stability and security
More changes and uncertainty
Fore fluidity and choice
But potentially more fragile
What are the two types of biography beck and beck gernsheim spoke about
Standard biography
Choice biography
What did beck and beck gernsheim mean by standard biography
Jobs for life
Marriage
Religion
What did beck and beck gernsheim mean by choice biography
Individuals seek to construct their own lives through individual choices