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Sociology · Sociology Themes and Perspectives (Haralambos and Holborn)

Chapter 8 : Families, households and personal life

Table of contents109 sections
  1. 1.Families, households and personal life
  2. 2.Introduction
  3. 3.Key Terms
  4. 4.📌 Exam Tidbits
  5. 5.Is the family universal?
  6. 6.George Peter Murdock - the family as a universal social institution
  7. 7.Variations in family structure
  8. 8.The Nayar
  9. 9.Matrifocal families
  10. 10.The female-carer core
  11. 11.Gay or lesbian households
  12. 12.Key Terms
  13. 13.📌 Exam Tidbits
  14. 14.The family - a functionalist perspective
  15. 15.George Peter Murdock - the universal functions of the family
  16. 16.Criticisms of Murdock
  17. 17.Talcott Parsons - the basic and irreducible functions of the family
  18. 18.Criticisms of Parsons
  19. 19.Key Terms
  20. 20.📌 Exam Tidbits
  21. 21.Marxist perspectives on the family
  22. 22.Friedrich Engels - the origin of the family
  23. 23.Eli Zaretsky - personal life and capitalism
  24. 24.Key Terms
  25. 25.📌 Exam Tidbits
  26. 26.Feminist perspectives on the family
  27. 27.Introduction
  28. 28.Marxist feminist perspectives on the family
  29. 29.Radical feminist perspectives on the family
  30. 30.A liberal feminist perspective - Jennifer Somerville
  31. 31.Difference feminism
  32. 32.Key Terms
  33. 33.📌 Exam Tidbits
  34. 34.The family, industrialisation and modernisation
  35. 35.The pre-industrial family
  36. 36.The isolated nuclear family
  37. 37.Peter Laslett - the family in pre-industrial societies
  38. 38.Michael Anderson - the family and industrialisation
  39. 39.Michael Young and Peter Willmott - changes in family structure
  40. 40.Peter Willmott - network of kin in London
  41. 41.Family diversity and kinship networks
  42. 42.The isolated nuclear family?
  43. 43.The dispersed extended family and the beanpole family
  44. 44.Key Terms
  45. 45.📌 Exam Tidbits
  46. 46.Family diversity
  47. 47.Introduction
  48. 48.The 'cereal packet image' of the family
  49. 49.Family and household diversity in Britain
  50. 50.Types of diversity
  51. 51.Diversity and individualisation
  52. 52.Gay and lesbian families and the decline of the heteronorm
  53. 53.Single parenthood
  54. 54.Lone parents, benefits and the underclass
  55. 55.The consequences of single parenthood
  56. 56.Ethnicity and family diversity
  57. 57.South Asian families
  58. 58.Caribbean families in Britain
  59. 59.Geoff Dench, Kate Gavron and Michael Young - Bethnal Green revisited
  60. 60.Robert Chester - the neo-conventional family
  61. 61.Key Terms
  62. 62.📌 Exam Tidbits
  63. 63.The changing functions of the family
  64. 64.The loss of functions
  65. 65.The maintenance and improvement of functions
  66. 66.Feminism and economic functions
  67. 67.Key Terms
  68. 68.📌 Exam Tidbits
  69. 69.Conjugal roles
  70. 70.Introduction
  71. 71.Ann Oakley - the sociology of housework
  72. 72.Survey research
  73. 73.Childcare
  74. 74.Time
  75. 75.Conjugal roles and power
  76. 76.Conjugal roles and emotion work
  77. 77.Gillian Dunne - the division of labour in lesbian households
  78. 78.Key Terms
  79. 79.📌 Exam Tidbits
  80. 80.Marriage, marital breakdown and family decline
  81. 81.Threats from alternatives to marriage
  82. 82.Marital breakdown
  83. 83.Explanations for marital breakdowns
  84. 84.Key Terms
  85. 85.📌 Exam Tidbits
  86. 86.The family, politics and social policy
  87. 87.Bias towards conventional families
  88. 88.Policies that do not support conventional families
  89. 89.Pamela Abbott and Claire Wallace - the family and the New Right
  90. 90.Carol Smart and Bren Neale - childcare and divorce
  91. 91.The family and New Labour
  92. 92.Conservative and Coalition family policies
  93. 93.Key Terms
  94. 94.📌 Exam Tidbits
  95. 95.Families, modernity, postmodernity and individualisation
  96. 96.Anthony Giddens - The Transformation of Intimacy
  97. 97.Ulrich Beck and Elisabeth Beck-Gernsheim - The Normal Chaos of Love
  98. 98.David H.J. Morgan - past-modern sociology and family practice
  99. 99.Carol Smart and Bren Neale - Family Fragments?
  100. 100.Judith Stacey - the postmodern family
  101. 101.Key Terms
  102. 102.📌 Exam Tidbits
  103. 103.The sociology of personal life
  104. 104.Carol Smart - Personal Life
  105. 105.Jacqui Gabb - intimacy in families
  106. 106.Key Terms
  107. 107.📌 Exam Tidbits
  108. 108.Summary and conclusions
  109. 109.Quick-Recall Box

Chapter preview

Families, households and personal life

"It is no longer possible to pronounce in some binding way what family, marriage, parenthood, sexuality or love mean, what they should or could be; rather these vary in substance, norms and morality from individual to individual and from relationship to relationship." — Beck and Beck-Gernsheim, 1995

Introduction

  • Traditional view: The family has historically been regarded as the cornerstone of society, the most basic unit of social organisation carrying out vital tasks like socialising children. Until the 1960s, few sociologists questioned its benefits, assuming the nuclear family was perfectly adapted to modern societies.
  • Critical turn (1960s onwards): Feminists, Marxists, and critical psychologists began highlighting the negative effects and the 'dark side' of family life.
  • Social changes: Traditional families appeared undermined by rising divorce rates, cohabitation before marriage, and increasing numbers of single-parent families and single-person households.
  • Individualists welcome this as a symptom of greater choice, freeing people from outmoded structures.
  • Traditionalists lament these changes, viewing them as a cause and symptom of societal instability, advocating a return to the nuclear family ideal.
  • Postmodernist view: Argues there has been a fundamental break between the modern and postmodern family. No single family type is dominant; therefore, it is impossible to produce a single theory of 'the family'.
  • Critics of postmodernism: Argue these theories neglect the lived experience of connections and strong emotional responses (love and hate). They advocate studying other intimate relationships (e.g., friendship, keeping pets).
  • Political shift: The family has moved from a private sphere free of political interference to a legitimate area for public debate and political action.

Key Terms

ConceptDefinition
Nuclear familyA family structure based around a two-generation household of parents and their children.

📌 Exam Tidbits

  • Beck and Beck-Gernsheim (1995): Argued that the definitions and norms of family, marriage, and love now vary from individual to individual.
  • The shift in sociology: Pre-1960s consensus on the nuclear family's utility vs post-1960s critical focus on the 'dark side' of the family.

Is the family universal?

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Chapter 9 : Power, politics and the state