Theories of the Family - Postmodernism Flashcards
Lyotard and Bourdrillard belief about contemporary society
It’s rapidly changing and full of uncertainties
What does postmodernism place important on which is different to other perspectives?
How Individuals affect institutions. All other theories are about how institutions affect individuals
Individuals are no longer constrained by what?
Social structures rejecting ideas about traditional family
What are 2 key features of postmodern society?
Diversity and consumer choice
What do people no longer feel bound by according to Beck-Gernsheim and Stacey?
People no longer feel bound by traditional ideas and expectations
What is reflected by rising divorce rates, cohabitation and births outside of marriage?
People are adopting new lifestyles and ways of relating to one another
What do postmodernists believe people do with relationships?
People ‘mix and match’ relationships
Diversity and fragmentation
Society is increasingly fragmented as people can ‘mix and match’, creating their identities and lifestyles from range of choices
What makes life less predictable?
Rapid social change
Family is less stable. What does this give individuals?
More choice about their personal relationships
What do Rhona and Rapoport believe about diversity?
It’s of central importance in understanding family life
What does family diversity reflect?
Greater freedom of choice and acceptance of different cultures
5 types of family diversity in Britain today
- Organisational diversity
- Cultural diversity
- Social class diversity
- Life-stage diversity
- Generational diversity
What does Cheal believe society has entered?
A new, chaotic, postmodern stage
Why does Cheal think family structures have become fragmented?
Because individuals have much more choice
What does greater diversity and choice lead to according to Cheal?
Greater risk of instability resulting in more break ups
What does Stacey believe about families in western societies?
They are varied, constantly changing and tend to lack a fixed shape, form or structure
What has the emergence of postmodern families distorted according to Stacey?
Whole idea that family progresses through series of logical stages
Why must social attitudes and policies have to adjust to diversity according to Stacey?
Because it is permanent
What families played crucial role in changes in family life according to Stacey?
Gay and Lesbian familiesm
What have gay and lesbian couple increasingly asserted according to Stacey?
Right to claim aspects of more conventional family relationships
What does Stacey believe about children in gay or lesbian families?
They are less likely to be hostile and more likely to try homosexual relationships for themselves
What do gay and lesbian families discourage and allow according to Stacey?
Discourage intolerance and allows people more freedom to explore sexuality
What society do we live in according to Beck?
A ‘risk society’ where tradition has less influence and people have more choice
Benefits of traditional family although it was unequal and oppressive?
Provided stable and predictable basis for family life
What is the personal life perspective strongly influenced by?
Interactionist ideas
Interactionalist ideas
Try’s to understand why individuals behave like they do
What does personal life perspective argue?
To understand families, we must start from the point of view of the individuals concerned and the meanings they give to their relationship
What view does personal life perspective take on relationships?
Wider view than just traditional family relationships
How does the personal life perspective draw our attention to a range of other personal or intimate relationships?
By focusing on peoples meanings
What different relationships than family may give people sense of belonging, identity and relatedness?
-Relationships with friends
-Fictive kin (treating friends like relatives)
-Relationships with dead relatives
-Relationships with pets
What does Nordqvist and Smart’s study of what counts as family when child shares genetic construct of stranger help us understand?
How people construct and define their relationships as family
What does personal life perspective reject?
Top down view of other perspectives
What does the personal life perspective reinforce?
Relatedness isn’t always positive
Personal life perspective criticised as too what?
Broad
What have recent decades family and marriage been transformed by according to Giddens?
A greater choice and more equal relationships
What has contraception allowed according to Giddens?
Allowed sex and intimacy to become main reason for relationship
What have women gained according to Giddens?
Independence
What are relationships now based on according to Giddens?
Individual choice and equality
Pure relationship
Typical of todays late modern society where relationships are no longer bound by traditional norms
What do relationships become with more choice according to Giddens?
Less stable
What does individualisation thesis argue according to Beck?
That traditional social structures such as class, gender and family have lost much of their influence over us
What were peoples lives defined by in the past according to Beck?
Fixed roles
What does love offer?
‘Emotional base’ and ‘security system’
What does individualisation thesis ignore importance of?
Structural factors
What does individualisation thesis exaggerate?
How much choice
What is the connectedness thesis an alternative to?
The individualisation thesis
What does the connectedness thesis see us as?
Disembedded, isolated individuals with limitless choice about personal relationships
What does Smart believe about connectedness thesis?
We are fundamentally social beings whose choices are always “within a web of connectedness”
What do class and gender limit?
Our choices about what kinds of relationships, identities and families we can create for ourselves
What does personal life perspective emphasise?
Importance of social structures in shaping freedoms many people have
