2. CONTEMPORARY PERSPECTIVES OF THE FAMILY

Question 1

New Right Perspective

Answer 1

.Nuclear Family is ‘natural’
.Lone parents are unnatural & harmful to society
.Traditional values
.Over generous welfare state

Question 2

Charles Murray - New Right

Answer 2

non-traditional types of families are to blame for educational failure, high crime rates, low employment, health problems & the ‘dependence culture’

Question 3

Murray - Underclass

Answer 3

. Has formed which is to blame for the majority of society’s problems (particularly poor child rearing practices)
. This underclass is made up primarily of lone-parent families

Question 4

Criticisms of New Right

Answer 4

.Feminists = NF is based on patriarchal oppression and is a cause of gender inequality
.No evidence that children in lone-parent families are more likely to be delinquent compared to those with 2 parents
.Marxists = NR just want to keep the rich rich; they want to take burden away from the state
.Marriage is not always ‘Functional’

Question 5

Modernism

Answer 5

. Assumes that that the social world is fixed, rigid & structured &, as such, it can be studied by looking at fixed, rigid structures
. eg the Nuclear Family
.Individuals have little choice or agency
.Behaviour is predictable and structured
.Only small levels of variety

Question 6

Postmodernism

Answer 6

.We no longer live in a ‘modern’ society which is predictable and ordered
.New, chaotic stage
.There is no single, dominant family structure today
.Fragmented into lots of different types
.Gives people more freedom and choice in lifestyles
→BUT causes more instability

Question 7

Late Modernism vs Postmodernist

Answer 7

Late Modernists agree with Postmodernists that there is much greater choice and freedom in people’s lives
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 completely diverse and random.

.For example, a divorced woman (who has made that choice!) cannot just be completely free and have loads of choices - Connectedness Thesis

Question 8

Giddens - Modern Love

Answer 8

In the modern era, marriage and family life = based on romantic love. It WASN’T based on equality and led to the dominance of men, but was still ideal in modern society. Bound to stay together until death and remain faithful throughout = foundation of family life

Question 9

Giddens - Reflexivity + Plastic Sexuality

Answer 9

Entering era of late modernity led to development of reflexivity. People began questioning the idea of marriage and the reasons behind it.
→ Led to emergence of plastic sexuality.
.Sex becomes leisure pursuit rather than having it for the sole reason of childbirth

Question 10

Giddens - Confluent Love replacing Romantic Love

Answer 10

Emergence of plastic sexuality changes the nature of love.
Confluent love - love which lasts only as long as it benefits the lover.
More choice = more divorce. Led to pure relationship (real love and not sense of duty).
→ This is good = more equal opportunities between men and women. But still not perfect. Pure relationship more of an ideal than something most have achieved – a trend though.

Question 11

Giddens’ Evaluation

Answer 11

Strength: explains high rates of divorce and the greater variety of family forms (search of PR). Also shows why marriage remains popular = quest fot PR

Weaknesses: Jamieson (feminist) argues little evidence PR have become widespread – gender inequalities still stop this from happening (patriarchy).

Question 12

Giddens - Reflexivity as key

Answer 12

.Pre-modern times = instititutions governed by tradition. Modernity came around and people started to apply reason to ideas and changes

.Traditions are less important = instead reflexivity means people can now make choices based on reason and rationale. People can now construct their own identities, and not as confined by fixed social structures (like functionalism and Marxism argue).

.e.g. self-help books, magazine columns, ‘how to raise a family’ books etc.

Question 13

Giddens - Pure Relationship (1992)

Answer 13

.supports the idea that families are more diverse nowadays and suggests that it is because of the increase of the ‘choice-based’ society
.the improved knowledge & availability of contraception and the increased independence of women
.allowed couples to define their own relationships rather than have them forced on them. This creates ‘Pure Relationships’ based on love and care as opposed to old-fashioned notions of ‘tradition’ and ‘duty’

.This means that with more choice, personal relationships inevitably become less stable and can be ended more or less at will by any partner = LEADS TO INCREASED FAMILY DIVERSITY

Question 14

Giddens - Same Sex Relationships

Answer 14

sees them as leading the way towards new family types and creating more equal relationships = ‘pioneers’
= not influenced by traditions to the extent that heterosexual couples are
= relationship is based on choice and equality

Question 15

Beck - Individualisation Thesis (1992)

Answer 15

.Beck argues that we now live in a ‘risk society’ where tradition has less influence and people have more choice.
.As a result we are more aware of risk because having choice means we spend more time calculating the risks and rewards of different courses of action available.
.Today’s risk society contrasts with the modern society of the past with its stable nuclear family and traditional gender roles.
. though the traditional patriarchal family was unequal and oppressive, it did provide a stable and predictable basis for the family by defining each member’s role and responsibly
More choice

Question 16

Beck - How Patriarchal Family is undermined

Answer 16

.Greater gender equality - which has challenged male domination in all spheres of life. Women now expect equality both at work and in marriage.
.Greater individualism - where people’s actions are influenced more by calculations of their own self-interest that by a sense of obligation to others

Question 17

Beck - The Negotiated Family

Answer 17

However the patriarchal family has been undermined by two trends:
Greater gender equality - which has challenged male domination in all spheres of life. Women now expect equality both at work and in marriage.
Greater individualism - where people’s actions are influenced more by calculations of their own self-interest that by a sense of obligation to others.

These trends have led to the rise of the negotiated family.
Negotiated families do not conform to the traditional family norm, but vary according to the wishes and expectations of their members, who decide what is best for them by discussion
They enter the relationship on an equal basis.
However, the negotiated family may be more equal, but it is less stable, because it is characterised by greater equality
= leads to more lone parent families, one person households, re-marriages and so o

Question 18

Beck’s Evaluation

Answer 18

Strengths:
May be right to suggest that greater choice over relationships can create problems in making them work

Criticisms:
May (2011) criticises the individualisation thesis for exaggerating the decline of traditional norms and values
= e.g. class differences still shape family life and marriage
= e.g. gender inequality = do women really have choice?!
Smart (2007) = questions the idea of individualisation = people are still connected to each other in various ways (connectedness thesis)

Question 19

Postmodernist characteristics

Answer 19

.Diversity and Fragmentation - Society is increasingly fragmented, with a broad diversity of subcultures rather than one shared culture
.Rapid social change - New technology such as the internet have transformed our lives by dissolving barriers of time and space, transforming patterns of work and accelerated pace of change making life less predictable.

Question 20

Judith Stacey - Divorce extended Family

Answer 20

. Study conducted in Silicone Valley, California
. Women that have divorced
.She discovered that many women rejected the traditional housewife role and had chosen extremely varied life paths (some choosing to return to education, divorcing and remarrying)
. Members are connected by divorce rather than marriage, for example ex in laws

Question 21

Postmodernist - Stacey Evaluation

Answer 21

Strengths:
.Shows there is greater diversity + unlikely there’ll ever be a move back to a situation where the NF is as dominant

Criticisms:
.Stacey exaggerates the extent of change
.The belief that ‘Traditional Families’ are the ‘best’ family form, especially from raising children, remains strong (New Right + .Functionalists would argue this)
.Feminists = women are still oppressed

Question 22

Bauman - Liquid Love

Answer 22

Suggested relationships in Late modernity are fragile and based on consumerist transactions
.

Question 23

Hareven (1978) - Life Course Analysis

Answer 23

.Suggests that there is no point in talking about ‘fixed’ families as there is flexibility and variation throughout people’s lives.
.As such any one person could live in several different types of families & households throughout their lives
→families are therefore ever-changing
eg:
Born into Nuclear Family → Lone Parent (Parents Divorce) → Reconstituted Family (Parent/s Remarry)→ Student Household(Finish Uni, Live alone)

Question 24

Personal Life - May (2011)

Answer 24

Personal Life Perspective
.(2011) argues that personal relationships are not confined to families and should not be exclusively studied in terms of the sociology of the family
.focusing on the continuing relationships between people provides a more realistic view of contemporary social life than the theories of Beck and Giddens (they focus too much on individuals)

Question 25

Personal Life - Smart (2007)

Answer 25

argues we should understand the meanings that people give to these relationships – important to the study of the sociology of personal life

Question 26

Personal Life Perspective

Answer 26

Criticise Functionalism, Marxism and Feminism:
.They tend to assume that the traditional NF is the dominant family type
.They are all structural theories (top-down)

They argue people shape their actions and relationships based on meanings people hold

People’s agency (their ability to choose how to act) is ALWAYS constrained by their relationships with other people

Question 27

Smart (2007) - Connectedness Thesis

Answer 27

.Alternative for Individualisation Thesis
.Instead of seeing us disembedded, isolated individuals with unlimited choice about personal relationships, Smart argues that we are fundamentally social being whose choices are always made ‘within a web of connectedness’
.According to the connectedness thesis, we live within networks of existing relationships and interwoven personal histories, and these strongly influence our range of options and choices in relationships.

Question 28

Connectedness thesis: class and gender

Answer 28

the role of the class and gender structures in which we are embedded

These structures limit our choices about the kinds of relationships, identities and families we can create for ourselves

For example:
After a divorce, women usually keep child = may limit opportunity to form new relationships. Men are then more free!
Men are generally paid better than women = greater freedom and choice in relationships