The connectedness thesis Flashcards
What does Smart describe as the connectedness thesis?
Instead of seeing us as disembedded, isolated individuals with limitless choice about personal relationships, Smart
argues that we are fundamentally social beings whose choices are always made ‘within a web of connectedness’.
What does the connectedness thesis state?
we live within networks of existing relationships and interwoven personal
histories, and these strongly influence our range of options and choices in relationships.
What did Finch and Mason find?
Finch and Mason’s (1993) study of extended families found that, although individuals can to some extent negotiate the relationships they want, they are also embedded within family connections and obligations that
restrict their freedom of choice.
What do these findings challenge?
the notion of the pure relationship.
Families usually include more than just the couples that Giddens focuses on, and even couple relationships are not
always “pure’ relationships that we can walk away from at will. For example, parents who separate remain linked by their children, often against their wishes.
What does Smart emphasise?
the importance of always putting individuals in the context of their past and the web of relationships that shape their choices and family patterns.
What does the connectedness thesis say about class and gender structures?
These structures limit our choices about the kinds of relationships, identities and families we can create for ourselves.
Give examples of how class and gender structures limit out choices
• After a divorce, gender norms generally dictate that
women should have custody of the children, which may
limit their opportunity to form new relationships. By
contrast, men are freer to start new relationships and
second families.
• Men are generally better paid than women and this gives
them greater freedom and choice in relationships.
• The relative powerlessness of women and children as
compared with men means that many lack freedom to
choose and so remain trapped in abusive relationships.
While Beck and Giddens argue that there has been a disappearance or weakening of the structures of class, gender and family that traditionally controlled our
lives and limited our choices, what does May argue?
May argues these structures are not
disappearing, they are simply being re-shaped. For example, while women in the past 150 years have gained important rights in relation to voting, divorce, education and employment, this does not mean that they now ‘have it all?’
What does Anna Einasdottir argue?
While lesbianism is now tolerated, heteronormativity (norms favouring heterosexuality) means that many lesbians feel forced to remain ‘ in the closet’ and this limits their choices
about their relationships and lifestyles.
What does the Connectedness thesis argue?
The connectedness thesis argues that people are not simply isolated individuals and that wider structures still
limit choice and diversity.
