Post Modern Flashcards
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Postmodernists argue that we no longer live in the modern world with predictable orderly
structures, such as the nuclear family. Instead society has entered a new, chaotic postmodern
stage. In postmodern society, family structures are incredibly varied and individuals have much
more freedom of choice in aspects of their lives which would have been relatively constrained in
the past i.e. lifestyles, personal relationships ad family arrangements.
Postmodern society has two key characteristics
- Diversity and fragmentation
Society is increasingly fragmented, with a broad diversity of subcultures rather than one shared
culture. People create their identity from a wide range of choices, such as youth subcultures,
sexual preferences and social movements such as environmentalism. - Rapid social change
New technology such as the internet, email and electronic communication have transformed our
lives by dissolving barriers of time and space, transforming patterns of work and leisure and
accelerated pace of change making life less predictable.
As a result of these social changes, family life has become very diverse and there is no longer one
dominant family type (such as the nuclear family). This means that it is no longer possible to make
generalisations about society in the same way that modernist theorists such as Parsons or Marx
did in the past.
stacey
Judith Stacey argues that women have more freedom than ever before to shape their family
arrangement to meet their needs and free themselves from patriarchal oppression.
She discovered than many women rejected the
traditional housewife role and had chosen extremely varied life paths (some choosing to return to
education, becoming career women, divorcing and remarrying). Stacey identified a new type of
family “the divorce-extended family” – members are connected by divorce rather than marriage, for
example ex in laws, or former husband’s new partners.
