The Postmodern Perspective on The Family Flashcards
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Postmodernists argue th..
Instead society has…
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.
Allen and Crow and Beck-Gernsheim are the two ‘extreme individualisation’ theorists
They argue there is now ”far greater diversity in people’s domestic arrangements’ so that there is no longer a clear ‘family cycle’ through which most people pass.” That is…
They argue there is no such thing as ‘the family’. There are many different families, family relationships and family forms. Each family develops and changes over time as its personnel develop and change’
They argue there is now ”far greater diversity in people’s domestic arrangements’ so that there is no longer a clear ‘family cycle’ through which most people pass.” They argue that most people no longer pass through a ‘family cycle’ whereby they leave home, get married, move in with their spouse and have children who in turn leave home themselves.
Instead, each individual follows unpredictable family course, complicated by cohabitation, divorce, remarriage, periods of living alone and so on.
This diversity is based on increased choice. Allan and Crow say that…
This diversity is based on increased choice. Allan and Crow say that individuals and families are now more able to exercise choice over domestic + familial arrangements: (their options are no longer constrained by convention or economic need.)
The divorce rate increasing, Lone parent households have increased in number.
Cohabitation outside marriage is increasingly common.
Beck-Gernsheim takes the idea of diversification even further..
They trace the origins of the process of individualization back to a…
Parsons argues that… (criticism)
This shows that
Beck-Gernsheim argue that diversification has led to the renegotiation of family relationships cos people attempt to find a middle ground between individualization and commitment to another person and/or children.
They trace the origins of the process of individualization back to a range of factors, including the influence of urbanization and secularization in post-modern societies.
Parsons argues that Men have an instrumental role that leads them into the public sphere of paid employment, whilst women have an expressive role that leads them to take responsibility of the private sphere of home and children.
This shows that there are still traditional values within the family and there actually isn’t as much diversity and variation as postmodernists argue.
Beck-Gernsheim points out that people today call their…
In the past…
She also points out..
Beck-Gernsheim points out that people today call their relationships different things – there are fewer ‘married’ couples and more ‘partners’ or just ‘couples’ –
in the past we had an idea of what marriage meant, today it less clear what being part of a ‘couple’ or ‘living with a ‘partner’ actually means.
She also points out being ‘coupled up’ doesn’t even necessarily involve living together, as the increasing amount of ‘Living Apart Together’ (LAT) relationships testifies to.
Beck argues that the increase in divorce and higher rates of..
In such family settings, one person may regard particular…
For example, children may or…
Beck argues that the increase in divorce and higher rates of breakdown amongst cohabitating families has resulted in the rise of the ‘patchwork family’ in which adults go through life with a series of different partners, which greatly adds to the complexity of family life
In such family settings, one person may regard particular family members as forming part of their family, while other members living in the same household may define their family as consisting of different people.
For example, children may or may not regard half-brothers and step-sisters as a part of their family, they may lose contact with one parent after divorce, and yet retain contact with all grandparents.
According to Beck-Gernsheim, increasing individualisation has resulted…
According to Beck-Gernsheim, increasing individualisation has resulted in increased diversity amongst relationships and family-forms that it is impossible to define what the family is or should be any more, and this also makes a return to the norm of the traditional nuclear family very unlikely.
Criticisms of Postmodernism
Criticisms of Postmodernism
Late-Modernist Giddens suggest that even though people have more freedom, there is a still a structure which shapes people’s decisions
Contemporary Feminists disagree with Postmodernism, pointing out that in most cases traditional gender roles which disadvantage women remain the norm.
Giddens and Beck recognize that people have more…
There are still…
Giddens and Beck recognize that people have more choice in terms of their relationships and family arrangements, but do not believe that people are as free as postmodernists suggest. There are still underlying patterns, and shared experiences of relationships that are a consequence of our living in a ‘late-modern’ society – rather than families just being diverse and random.
Giddens argues that in recent decades the family and marriage have been transformed by greater choice and a more equal relationship between men and women. Giddens argues that relationships are now characterised by three general characteristics:
couple are free to define the relationship themselves rather than acting out roles that have been defined in advance by law or tradition. For example, couples today can chose to cohabit rather than marry
- The typical relationship is the ‘pure relationship’….It exists to meet the partners’ needs and is likely to continue only so long as it succeeds. Couples stay together because of love, happiness of sexual attraction rather than tradition a sense of duty or for the sake of the children.
- Relationships become part of the process of self-discovery or self-identity trying different relationships
The personal life perspective
Also critices…
People are not entirely…
Also critices Giddens, Beck’s postmodern theory of influenced by traditions or norms when they make these decisions
People are not entirely free to decide for themselves how to shape their families, and their family relationships
Criticise PM with the Personal Life Perspective…. which finds that family life is still important, it’s just that family life has changed –…
Criticise PM with the Personal Life Perspective…. which finds that family life is still important, it’s just that family life has changed – people now effectively regard pets etc. as part of their families.
Chester argues that…
Chester argues that family diversity is exaggerated and the basic features of family life have remained largely unchanged for the majority of the population since the 1950s.
In conclusion,
In conclusion, there are many postmodern sociologists that support family diversity and argue that individuals no longer have to conform to traditional values, for example Jagger and Wright argue that attempts to ‘turn back the tide of family diversity’ and ‘recapture an idealized “nuclear” version of family life ’ is no longer an option.
