Families and Households

The nature and role of family in society
1. Families and households are not necessairly the same thing
  1. Families make up the majority of households but there are other types e.g. students or friends living together or people living only
  2. A family is a type of household where the people living together are related
    1. 1. Nuclear family: two generations living together
    2. 2. Traditional extended family: three or more generations of the same family living together or close by
    3. 3. Attenuated extended family: nuclear families that live apart from their extended family, but keep in regualr contact
    4. 4. Lone-parent families: a single parent and their dependent children
    5. 5. Reconstitued families: new stepfamilies created when parts of two previous families are brought together
2. Functionalists
  1. Functionalists see every institution in society as essential to the smooth running of society
    1. Murdock (1949)
      1. Sexual
      2. Reproductive
      3. Economic
      4. Educational
    2. Parsons (1950s)
      1. 2. The family stabilises personalities through the emotional relationship between the parents
      2. 1. Primary socialisation
    3. Some say that the functionalists ignore the negative aspects of family life
      1. 1. Morgan (1975) points out that Murdock makes no reference to the alternative household or to problems within a family
      2. 2. Since the 60s there's been widespread criticism that neither Murdock nor Parsons look at issues of conflict, class or violence
      3. 3, The fact that functionalists overlook negative aspects of the family life makes their position look weak
3. Marxists
  1. 1. Engels (1884) - economic function
  2. 2. Zaretsky (1976) - the proletariat have power and control but when the working man gets home he has power,, relieving some frustion workers have about their low status
  3. 3. In a capitalist society, a women's role is 'hosuewife' which makes them more productive
  4. 4. The family househild is a unti with the desire to buy the goods produced by capitalist industry
  5. The marxist view is criticised for being too negative
    1. Focused entirely on benefits to the economy and benefits to the working man's boss
    2. Assumes that the worker is male
    3. No explanation for why the family flourishes in a non-capitalist or communist socities
4. Feminists
  1. 3 main viewpoints
    1. Marxist feminism
      1. See the explotation of women as essential for the success of capitalism
    2. Radical feminisim
      1. Highlights housework as an area of explotation of women BUT don't see this as a fault of the capitalist system
        Domination of men in society. Men will always oppress women
    3. Liberal feminisim
      1. Emphasise the cultural nors and values which are reinforced by the family. The family is only sexists because it supports mainstream culture
5. The new right
  1. 1. Based on the idea that the traditional nuclear family and its values are best for society
  2. 2. Social policies have undermined the family
  3. 3. Charles Murray (1989) says that welfare benefits are too high and create a 'culture of dependency'
  4. 4. Particularly concerned about the welfare benefits to single mothers
  5. 5. The increase in lone-parent and step families and easier access to divorce has led to a breakdown in traditional values
  6. New right has been criticised for 'blaming the victim'
6. Postmodernists
  1. Say diversity in family structure is a good thing
    1. 1. Much wder range of living options
    2. 2. Judith Stacey (1990) says that there is such a diversity that there'll never be one dominant type of family in Western culture again
    3. 3. Key thing is the idea that contemporary living is so flexible that one individual can experiences lots of different types of family in one life time
    4. Postmodern theory questions whether this movement through different types of family is all that typical. O'Brien and Jones (1996) concluded that there was less avriety then Stacey thought and most people only actually experience one or two types of famiyl in their lifetime
Changes in family structure
Roles and relationships within the family
Family diversity - changing family patterns
Demography and the family
Family diversity and social change
Childhood

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Families and Households

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