Family Practices and Display Flashcards
Explain family practices
Morgan (1996)
Family shouldn’t be understood as a structure with each member having functions and roles, as functionalists like Talcott Pearsons previously suggested.
Instead, the family should be understood through the things and actions people do that make a family - family practices
Family is what we do, not what we are
The shared meanings we attach to these actions are what make family and how we understand who our family is
These family practices are based on family moralities.
This includes dependency, mutuality and obligations we have for each other
The everyday routine and repetition of these practices make them family practices, but they can change and evolve over time and are different for different people
Explain some examples that show family practices
Blake et al 2009
Studied two families: one in Hungary and one in the UK
They found that despite differences in the food served or how it was cooked, the family meal was identifiable in both families. This was something they practised regularly and as a family, that unified them and was important to them. If circumstances did not allow it, blake et al 2009 suggests that the families would find a way to ensure that a family meal was still present.
Mason and Muir 2013
studied Christmas in families and how the traditions surrounding it show family being practised. Within the families studied there were traditions that were continued and created the atmosphere associated with Christmas. But they changed and evolved over time with the addition of more children or new partners, supporting Morgan’s ideas that family practices are evolving.
Explain family display
Finch 2007
Finch argues that instead of focusing on how family is done/practised, we need to explore how family is displayed.
This is how a performance is created surrounding the things we do to portray our family to others and allow other to understand who is in our family. As family is not just accepted because it is done, but through the quality of the relationships, display is needed for everyone to understand who is family and accept it.
She uses the example of a father reading a child to sleep to explain why display is necessary. A father reading a child to sleep is a routine, embedded part of family practices, however in circumstances where the father has been away or it is a new step father, reading the child to sleep is a display that they are still apart of the family and are apart of the family.
This display can be shown through tools are she calls the. Such as picture round the house or keepsakes. But also through the use of narratives
Explain some examples of family display
Almack 2008
Explored how lesbian parent couples experienced family display and how this causes family relationships to be renegotiated.
In order for these families to feel accepted, they may require more display than heterosexual couples.
This family display was important in how these parents understood if they were accepted as part of the family.
For example, one of the mother’s parents began knitting their child clothes, like she had done for their other grandchildren from hetero couples, showing that they accepted this new grandchild as family.
What is an alternative explanation/limitation of family practice and display?
Smart 2007
While finch does explain the importance of the quality of relationships and Smart does acknowledge that Morgan’s 1996 family practices. They argue that we should focus further on the relationships between people to understand the nuances and complexity of relationships that these previous theories don’t look at.
This approach seeks to avoid privileging biological kin or marriage but focuses on the relationships we choose to have with people and the quality of these relationships, allowing us to understand who our family is.
Family is not a network or just individuals but people making agentic choices within the societal structure of who they believe to be their family.
Policy
family is too institutionalised through policy for us to understand it through these theories.
eg Woodthorpe and Rumble 2016
The Funeral expences payment (FEP) has to be applied for by the benefits claimant and they have to be a close relative. They have to give an explanation of the situation and why they should receive the payment for the funeral. But this can be rejected it it is believed a different family member can pay instead. - so family is not understood through practices, display or personal life but through who is decided by policy which is complex due to the very loose next of kin in the UK
eg bereavement leave that is up to the discretion of the employers such as at the University of Bath based on who is considered immediate family
Eg two child policy - hewer 2024 argues the government restricts women reproductive freedoms to decide how many children they have
