Key Sociologists

Murdock

Functionalist

Instrumental and expressive roles

4 functions of the family - reproduction, economic, educational and sexual

Parsons

Functionalist

Functional fit - as world industrialised family had to change (geographical and social mobility)

Loss of functions - needs these - primary socialisation and warm bath

Jewson

New right

Ideal family - clearly defined gender roles, self sufficiency, opposition of homosexuality and children being raised by married parents

Murray

New right

Critical of lone parents and same sex parents - stability

Benson

New right

Did a study that proves that family types like lone parent aren’t stable and that it is if parents are married

Marsaland and Saunders

New right

Line parents are a part of the criminal underclass and encourages children to be anti social

Engels

Marxist

Inheritance of private property - benefits middle class children as they have advantages on property market

Althusser

Marxist

Ideological state apparatus- family mirrors workplace

Zaretsky

Marxist

Unit of consumption

Keeping up with the joneses

Pester power

Delphy and Leonard

Radical feminists and in terms of couples

‘They flatter, excuse, boost, sympathise and pay attention to men’ - men rarely perform this back

Greer

Radical feminists

House wife is an unpaid worker/permanent employee

Female eunuch

Sommerville

Liberal feminist

Female roles have improved significantly - access to divorce and less pressure to marry

Fran ansley

Marxist feminists and couples

Takers of shit - in order for men to get back to work

Sullivan

Liberal feminists

Saw there is a rise in men doing housework

Nordqvist and smart

Personal life perspective

Conducted research on donor conceived children and found that the issues of blood and genes had mixed feelings - some emphasised and some feared telling

Chester

Critic of rapoports

Neo conventional family - only major change is the dual earner

Judith Stacey

Postmodernism

Pam and dotty - exposed to feminist ideas in college and as a result realised thy ey were unhappy and left their husbands

Roseneil

Postmodernism

Links development to chosen families and breakdown of the heteronorm- tv like friends and will and grace show alternatives

Giddens

Individualism

Decline of traditional norms as a result of emancipation of women and contraception.

Pure relationship

Same sex family of choice

Beck

Individualism = do it yourself biography- risk society, negotiated families and zombie families

Family patterns on cohabitation - trail run to see if it’s right for them

Gerson

Individualism

As workplace policies change so do attitudes

Morgan

New right on cohabitation

Part of a trend - marriage is out of style and and a result many don’t stay together long

Duncan and Phillips

LAT - found that 1 in 10 are LAT

Klinenburg

Family patterns - average adult will spend more life unmarried than married

Ferri and smith

Reconstituted families are at greater risk of poverty

Allan and Crowe

Reconstituted families faced problems of divided loyalties

Berthoud

Women head black families because of modern individualism and how relationships are based on quality

¾ of Pakistani and Bangladeshi women are married by age of 25

Studies 3 diff ethnic groups in Britain - White British, South British Asian, British Black Caribbean

Reynolds

Ethnic differences - criticises Berthoud on black families as sees they are visiting families and LAT and so aren’t counted in stats

Ballard

Ethnic differences - extended families are more common in EM groups - duty is respected and for elders

Oakley

Gender roles in couples

Cherry pickers - emphasised by research in 1974 where 72% of men ‘help’ out

Knudsen and waerness

Couples - women perform 2/3 of all domestic work in world

Young and Willmott

Couples - symmetrical family

Bott

Segregated conjugal roles and joint conjugal roles

Southerton

Women coordinate and schedule family quality time

Duncome and marsden

Triple shift with add of emotional work

Browne

Women’s careers suffer as a result of domestic division of labour

Coleman and Osborne

2 women a week are killed by partners or exes

Wilson and Pickett

Inequalities in household and income => risk of DA

Dobash

Violence can be triggered by what a husband saw as a threat to authority

Yearnshire

Women suffer an average 35 assaults before making a report

Transfer

Death rates

¾ decline in DR due to reduction in infectious diseases

McKeowen

Death rates

½ reduction as a result of good nutrition

Harper

Birth rates

Education of women led to a changed mindset

Walker

Life expectancy

People in poverty die 7 years earlier

Vertovec

Migration

Superdiversiyy

Citizens denizens and helots

Ehrenreich and hochschild

Migration

Services in west are increasingly done by women in poor countries

Spijker and MacInnes 2013

Ageing population

Lists of old people now live healthier lives than younger than previous older generations

Ross et al

Relationships between grandparents and teenage grandchildren

Used positive language when describing experiences w grandchildren. ‘Love’ and ‘happiness’

Mediate conflict

Some grandparents felt they had to carry out more responsibilities than they desired

Good relationship more likely to continue after divorce and separation

Cumming and Henry

Ageing population leads to withdrawal from social roles and this can be positive for wider society - jobs and family life (free childcare and frees up jobs)

Phillipson

Marxist ideas on ageing population

Capitalism views the elderly as a burden on society - ‘no use’ and state willing to support them adequately

Hunt

Ageing population - postmod

Argues we can choose a lifestyle regardless of our age and the fixed orderly stages of life have broken down

Aries

Childhood - 20th C was century of the child and there is an obsession almost a cult of childhood

Wagg

Childhood is a social construct

Shorter

High mortality rates among children meant that many would go unnamed in the past

Holmes - case study

Samoan village saw that ‘too young’ was never a reason for not doing things unless they are not seen to be physically be able

Postman - conflict

Sees the information hierarchy as breaking down - distinction between what adults v children can access and see is blurred

Palmer- conflict

Toxic childhood - children’s wellbeing negatively impacted by rise in technology as they aren’t going outside anymore and get bullied

Jenks (AO3) - positive

Childhood is NOT disappearing just changing

Opie (AO3) - positive

There is still a continued separation of children v adult cultures

Gittens - conflict

Age patriarchy - act up or down is the response

Firestone and Holt- conflict

laws focused on protecting children are actually new forms of oppression

Bhatti - conflict

Found that family honour (izzat) restricted children

Mason and Tipper - positive

Children now can create their own childhood

Drew - social policy

Feminist - policies of different govts follow different regimes. Family has become more individualistic meaning that assumptions of gender roles has lessened

Land - social policy

Social policy oppresses women as it upholds the patriarchy

Foucault - social policy

Other professional jobs such as doctors and social services have surveillance over society through family

Donzelot - social policy

social policy polices the family - form of control