What do sociologists think of family diversity and plurality?

Question 1

Leach (media and family type)

Answer 1

Described the typical family type shown in media and praised by politicians as the ‘cereal packet image’ of the family

Supported by Oakley and Thorne:

• critical of how the nuclear family has been elevated to a high status and glorified
• comment that it falsifies reality and obscures the diversity of contemporary family life

Question 2

Functionalists

Answer 2

• preference for the nuclear family
• nuclear family is uniquely suited to the needs of modern society
• other family types are dysfunctional/ deviant
• argue that diversity is minor and basic family features haven’t changed

Question 3

Chester (a functionalist) (emphasises how family life is transitional)

Answer 3

• most people experience the nuclear family at some point in their life, aspire to it, and family life is transitional so statistics are misleading
• only significant change has been the nuclear family to the neo - conventional family

Question 4

The New Right

Answer 4

• the nuclear family is the only ideal family type

- family diversity is a product of family breakdown

Question 5

Benson (member of the New Right) (commenting on the rate of family breakdown)

Answer 5

• analysed data and found that over the first 3 years of a child’s life, the rate of the family breakdown was higher among cohabiting couples (showing that only marriage can provide a stable environment)

Question 6

Feminists

Answer 6

• nuclear family is based on patriarchal oppression
• critical of the New Right
• family diversity is positive and liberating especially for females who are able to live in units of their choice

Question 7

Postmodernists

Answer 7

• believe family diversity gives individuals greater freedom to plot their own life course
• society is increasingly individualistic, fragmented and diverse so we have greater choice about our relationships that we can’t talk about a single, stable, dominant family type

Question 8

Morgan (a postmodernist) (comments on the individuality of families)

Answer 8

• argues that it’s pointless making large-scale generalisations about the family
• prefers the concept of family practices to explain how we construct our life course and relationships

Question 9

Beck (influenced by postmodernist ideas) (comments on the changes in biographies and society and the family)

Answer 9

• believes the ‘standard biography’ has been replaced by the ‘do-it-yourself biography’
• we now live in a ‘risk’ society
• the traditional patriarchal society has been undermined by greater gender equality and individualism which results in the ‘negotiated’ family
• the family is a ‘zombie category’

Question 10

Giddens (influenced by postmodernist ideas) (comments on the recent transformations of the family and marriage)

Answer 10

• argues that in recent decades the family and marriage have been transformed by greater choice
• the ‘pure relationship’ is typical of late modern society (no longer held together by norms, religion and laws)
• with more choice, relationships have become less stable

Question 11

Smart (takes a personal life perspective) (criticises the individualisation thesis of Beck and Giddens)

Answer 11

• the thesis exaggerates how much choice people have, ignoring that traditional norms still impact many people
• wrongly sees people as ‘free-floating’ who can make decisions regardless of their personal relationships in a social context
• ignores the importance of structural factors such as social class in limiting and shaping relationship choices