SOCI 200 Exam 1

What is “family?”

Family often viewed & defined under certain ideologies 

• Systematic beliefs that claim to be “truth” that rationalize or justify behaviors and actions

• What is subjective is viewed as objective

SNAF (Standard North American Family)

• The "normative family” by which other family types are compared and measured 

• Theses normative defns can support discourse of family decline

  • Past family life romanticized, current family trends viewed with worry or skepticism 

Alternative lenses: family change and family diversity

• Families are metamorphosizing, changing

• There has never really been a “golden” or “stable” age of family 

• Determinants of family change also frequently shift 

• Ex. there are a rise of children in single parent households -> more than in the 1930s and 1950s -> ebbing and flowing 

• Other defns include religious, legal, official classifications, more informal 

Census families

• married or common-law couple (w or w/o children) or single parent w/ at least one child living in same dwelling and that child/children 

Economic families

• 2+ persons living in same dwelling who are related (by blood, marriage, etc), encompasses Census families, broader defn

• Used when govt wants to know about household income

Fictive kin

• people who aren't related by blood, marriage, or adoption but are considered family due to deep emotional bonds and assumed family roles

“The term family is not simply a concept, but a

…minefield of contested values and power relationships”

Family is defined by the Vanier Institute of Family as any combo of 2+ ppl bound tgt over time by ties of mutual consent, birth, adoption or placement who assume responsibilities for various combinations of the following: 

• Physical maintenance and care of group members 

• Addition of new members through procreation or adoption 

• Socialization of children 

• Social control of members 

• Production, consumption, distribution of goods and services 

• Affective nurturance - love 

Technological change

• innovations drastically reshape our world, for good or bad 

  • Ex. communication with smartphones, tv 

Economic changes

• shifts in flow of goods/services, work & employment patterns, wealth distribution, etc. impact social life

  • Ex. child labour, types of jobs available, who is expected to do what type of labour 

Legal change

• rights/freedoms granted or taken away can impact individuals & populations 

  • Ex. Interracial marriage, slavery 

Cultural change

• shifts in values, norms, attitudes, beliefs can lead to changing behaviors 

  • Example: religious changes, shifting attitudes about the importance of marriage,  many ppl went from being against to for same-sex marriage in a short period of time, shifting to a more individualistic mindset 

What are some drivers of Social (& Family) Change

• Technological change

• Economic change

• Legal change

• Cultural change

Economic changes

shift from preindustrial economies of household production → emergence of a globalized consumer society

Demographic changes

• declines in child mortality & increased longevity; people having fewer children than they used to 

Family Life “Back Then” – Canada & US (1600s-1800s)

• Slavery in US & Canada 

Indigenous living & European conquest

• Slavery in US & Canada 

• Brought as laborers at plantations (mainly US, + Caribbean & South America): to construct buildings & infrastructure; to clear lands; perform household labor, etc.  

• Family life highly regulated/constrained: family separations, marriages needed permission, some women forced to bear children, etc. 

• 1600s-1800s (abolished 1834 Canada; 1865 US); legacy endures in many ways 

Indigenous living & European conquest Pre: Europeans brought:

• Pre: hunting & gathering, extensive kinship networks, many matrilineal families 

• Europeans brought material culture, disease, Chirsitanity, diff family systems like patriarchy

Indian Act of 1876 & Residential Schools w/ goal of 

• Assimilation

• Assimilation

• = processes by which group/individual becomes more like the “dominant” group w/ respect to its culture

Family Life “Back Then” – Canada & US (1900s) 

• Industrialization & transition to a consumer society

• Huge changes to women’s lives

  • Feminist movements, labor force participation increases 

  • But lingering pattern of “separate spheres” - division of labour b/wn men and women 

Globalization

• World scale of economic & market activity; fueled by expansion of telecommunications & multinational corporations

Transnationalism

• people crossing/straddling multiple economic and cultural regions via migration

Corporate family

• The family was a productive unit, often living and working on the same premises (e.g., a family farm or business). The family was largely self-employed, with income generated through the collective efforts of the household. 

Changing meanings of marriage: In the West, marrying for economic/political reasons → …

marrying for love

Changing meanings of marriage: Serial monogamy w/

• more cohabitation, separations, divorce, & remarriage  

Changing meanings of marriage: New(ish) legal benefits to marriage 

• E.g., tax credits, loans to buy homes, property sharing 

Recent Population Trends Around the World:

• Integral roles of social demography & population science 

• Rising age at first marriage + increasing non-marriage 

• Delayed childbearing + increased childlessness 

• Low birth rates leads to 

  - Aging populations

- Increased urbanization 

- Increased international migration 

SDT is one prevalent theoretical framework for

• making sense of so many macro-level family changes 

• Value change - shift away from materialistic values to non-materialistic values

• Builds on first demographic transition

first demographic transition

• historical declines in mortality and fertility, “as witnessed from the 18th century onward in several European populations and continuing at present in most developing countries”

Second Demographic Transition (SDT): Emphasizes that a cultural shift from materialist → postmaterialist values (e.g., self actualization) leads to…

• Disconnection b/w marriage & childbearing 

• Lower fertility/birth rates 

• More diverse family forms 

• Population aging 

Patriarchy

• System of social organization where men have authority over family and property 

• Compare w/ matriarchy, egalitarianism

• Lineage and inheritance usually passed through men 

• Also evident in prioritization of men’s employment, naming practices, power in opposite-sex relationships, sex ratios - sex selection abortion (males preferred over females), religious practices, etc. 

What are the trends of immigration to Canada from 1871 to 2021?

1871 - more European settlers, early 2000s - 2021 more immigrants from Asia

Most immigrants to Canada are

• Economic immigrants 

Most immigrants to Canada were born in (which countries?)

1. India 2. Phillipines 3. China

In a matriarchy, are women’s last names passed down?

Extremely hard to find examples of fully matriarchal societies

More examples of matrilineal societies – descent flows thru women but not necessarily power • E.g., Khasi people

What is sociology?

“The study of human relationships, the rules and norms that guide them and the development of institutions and movements that conserve and change society”

A Brief History of Sociology: Early origins…

ancient greek philosophers (500-300 BCE), historians in East Asia (1200s), Islamic scholars in North Africa (1300s) 

A Brief History of Sociology: The Enlightenment, development of modern science & the industrial revolution (~1800s)

• Industrialization & huge economic changes

• Shift toward empiricism

empiricism

discovering the world via methodical, detailed observations 

Industrialization & huge economic changes

• need to understand changing societies + theorize how to reform them 

A Brief History of Sociology: Late 1800s & early 1900s:

solidification of the discipline in Western contexts

• Roots in France, Germany and later US

Early Classical Theorists: Comte

French philosopher, popularized the term sociology 

• Introduced positivism

• Works translated by Harriet Martineau, who brought this view to English-speaking world 

Positivism

reality is measurable via scientific method; research is value-neutral

Durkheim

• French sociologist, influenced by Comte, pioneer of modern social research 

• Saw sociology as the study of "social facts,” aspects of society that transcend the individual 

• Famous for work on suicide & how rate varied in different religious contexts

Consensus theory

• Society = collective of shared norms & values, order is at the core of social life 

  • We all play important social roles. Otherwise, chaos!

Dominant sociological theory = structural functionalism

rose to fame w/ Talcott Parsons

• What is the function of X? What role does X play? Why does X survive? 

• Stability rather than change 

• There’s a good reason things are they way they are 

Consensus Theory & Structural Functionalism

• Nuclear family structure as harmonious; essential to functioning society 

Nuclear family

• Breadwinner-homemaker family = basis for stability & cooperation 

• Instrumental role of husband 

• Expressive role of wife: caregiving, nurturing, 

• Families 1) socialize children 2) provide economic support 3) provide emotional support 

• Supposed to provide stability in a quickly changing world

 Stephanie Coontz’s Marriage, a History: Until 18th/19th century, marriage mainly for political/economic advancement

→ new ideals of free choice, marrying for love

“The long decade of the 1950s”: truly a unique time for

• postwar __&

• surge __ in at young ages

• by 1959, almost half of all women …

• peak of__

• Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, show depicting__

• family in the West (late 1940s-mid 1960s) 

  • Postwar prosperity & mass consumerism 

  • Surge in “love marriages” at young ages 

  • By 1959, almost half of all women married by 19 

  • Peak of baby boom 

• Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, show depicting nuclear family life

Marriage & male bread-winning ideal was

“like a steamroller that crushed every alternative view” (Coontz)

Became viewed as the "traditional" type of family structure despite being a historical blip

Marriage & male breadwinning ideal: Experts (wrongly) assumed these were pretty stable, universal trends

• Parsons never predicted that women might broadly win access to careers ( & that many might want them!)

• Goode, another sociologist, saw love-based marriages as inevitable & universal; predicted families will raise daughters to take “only a modest degree of interest in full-time careers” 

• Neglected contradictory data (e.g. cohabitation patterns in Latin America) 

• Took a narrow view that neglected history & possibility for even more rapid change 

What happened next (post 1960s)? 

• Rising discontent (among women & men) over male breadwinner/female homemaker marriages 

• 2nd wave feminism & popular books like the Feminine Mystique (1963) 

  • “The problem that has no name”

• Expansions in women’s employment & contraceptive revolution 

• More divorce, more cohabitation, and the trends we discussed last lecture

Why Parsons & SF Fell out of Favour:

• drawn on much less in sociological studies today

Parson’s & SF: Work framed as overall simplistic, too abstract,

• trying to rationalize, preserve status quo 

Parson’s & SF: But still useful to understand for several reasons:

• Evolution of sociological theory & how shaped by historical context 

• Different ways of viewing the world (consensus vs conflict)

• Institutions like family can & do play positive roles & help structure society

Conflict Theory & Marx

• Roots in Karl Marx & Fredierich Engels

Conflict Theory & Marx

• contrast to consensus perspectives

• Karl Marx & Fredierich Engels

• broadly focuses on power relations & inequality 

  • Not always “bad” to have conflict…viewed as an engine of social change

• Macro - work vs. family; men vs women; competing class interests 

• Micro - parents vs. children; sibling conflict 

Engels

• nuclear family furthers capitalism & inequality 

  • i.e. families reproduce -> more labour power that benefits capitalists

Karl Marx

• Capitalism = ruling class vs working class 

• Emphasis on alienation, class struggle, exploitation 

Political Economy Perspective

• Less a unified theory, more of a broad lens/way of approaching research 

• Intertwinement of economics & politics - how they shape each other 

  • Globalization, inequality, macroeconomic policy, economic development, etc. 

  • How dominant groups manufacture consent

Political Economy Perspective: Manufacture consent

•  control information via media, shape behavior, shape politics, etc. 

Political Economy Perspective: How does it apply to family

• Capitalist modes of production shape our lifestyles & choices 

• Consumption shapes our values, practices, needs

• Political & econmic systems shape which families get what resources 

• Example: Goods that capitalize on parenting stress 

  • Marketed as making life easier 

  • May foster more consumption, more class-based inequality, more parenting stress! 

What is Theory & Why Important?

• Links the abstract (ideas, concepts, curiosities) to the concrete (observations) 

  • Help us describe, interpret and/or explain a phenomenon 

  • Make sense of chaos!

  • Not created in a vacuum - subject to time, place, prior theories, etc. 

  • Drives research! But relationship b/wn theory & data bi-directional

In sociology, & studies of family, purpose is to systematically develop a general understanding of

 social/family life that we can also empirically test

Inductive

• begin w/ observations, create abstract ideas, produce theory  

Deductive

• begin w/ theory, create hypothesis, collect/test data - more like scientific research 

Largescale, unanticipated “package of changes” across wealthy countries - what many macro-level theorists refer to as the

second demographic transition

Link b/wn sex and marriage weakened, rising cohabitation; later childbearing 

• implications:

increasing family diversity & rising, class-based inequality

“diverging destinies”

• inequalities in children’s life outcomes resulting from socioeconomic bifurcation in family behaviors

• Eg individuals with lower SES more likely to cohabitate/be solo parents -> potentially less resources for kids

Diversifying of disciplines like sociology (both scholars & their ideas) 

• More

• New methods of research &

• Turn toward more

• More interdisciplinary work 

• New methods of research & more complex, context-based theorizing 

• Turn toward more critical & interpretive philosophies (as opposed to positivism - more objective viewpoint, such as in science) - Max Weber

Feminist Theories: Influenced by conflict perspective & Marxist thought, but more attention to

patriarchy and exploitation 

Feminist theories: Not one "unified" theory but

• many related ways of viewing & studying the world 

• E.g., radical feminism, development feminism, socialist feminism 

Feminist theories: five basic unifying themes:

1. Emphasis on the female experience (example of standpoint theory) 

2. Gender organizes social life, seen as a set of relations imbued w/ power & inequality 

3. Gender & family need to be contextualized & experiences vary, but many things … fill in 

4. No single definition of “family” 

5. Often focused on praxis - eliminating inequalities 

emergence of studies on masculinity

• how masculinities are defined, constructed

  • E.g. how boys are socialized; how men father

Intersectionality

• Challenges narrow views within

• Coined by Kimberle Crenshaw

  • Argued experiences of Black womanhood not simply reducible to 1) being Black or 2) being a woman.. these identities intersect & produce something new 

Intersectionality: People’s lives are multidimensional;

• shaped by interactions of many identities (race, gender, class, Indigeneity, age, migration status, etc.) 

• Interactions of identities unfold within unequal contexts (power, historical legacies, lingering injustices)

• Strong conceptual approach but also goal of resisting & challenging status quo 

Symbolistic interactionism

• An interpretivist perspective - focused on how humans attribute meanings to actions; how they interpret & respond to situations 

• Focus on micro-level processes 

• Individuals are constantly acting, negotiating, & responding to one another; capable of seeing themselves through the eyes of others 

People are active participants in shaping their worlds through everyday interaction

• Example - Howard Becker’s study on marijuana users 

  • Argues smoking is as much about social process as biological process 

  • New marijuana users learn (in interaction!) from experienced smokers how to identify the effects, how to enjoy them, and how to label/give them meaning

Social Constructionism 

• emerged as a theory of knowledge w/ Berger and Luckmann’s The Social Construction of Reality 

  • Social phenomena are created in particular social & cultural contexts 

  • We all participate in the construction of our perceived reality

  • What exists “out there” are fluid meanings, not objective truths 

  • Influenced by/in many ways similar to symbolic interactionism 

• Examples

  • E.g. Money is given meaning

  • Gender: ideas about “men” or “women” or masculinity or femininity are given meaning by us - how we dress, talk, act, etc. and the labels we attach to these behaviors 

Applying SI and SC to Family Life

• Interactions of family members or intimate couples involves shared understandings of situations, creation & maintenance of roles; reacting to others’ expectations 

• In contexts of change or where roles less defined, people create new meanings & roles via interactions (e.g. same-sex parenting, etc.) 

• E.g. A wedding ring is given the meaning that the person is married, decided by society 

Exchange Theory

• Another micro level theory; focused on decision-making in terms of costs & benefits & norms about reciprocity 

  • Heavily influenced by economists 

• Assumes humans act in self-interest & aim to maximize rewards/profits 

  • E.g. (“what I get out of it” - “what I lose by doing it”)= “My decision”

  • Assumes humans are rational 

• Becker’s New Home Economics perspective 

  • Household like a small factory trying to maximize utility 

  • E.g. couples divide labour based on efficiency 

Becker’s New Home Economics perspective 

• Household like a small factory trying to maximize utility 

• E.g. couples divide labour based on efficiency 

Social constructionism - example research question

How has academic research itself (Parsons) contributed to dormant constructions of what a "family" should look like?

Life Course Perspective

• Popular & very broad framework today (+ our textbook’s dominant paradigm) 

• Combines sociology, soc. Demography, history, economics, developmental psychology

• Key questions like “How does historical time & place shape our lives?” 

• Key concepts (see also box 2.3 in textbook)  

  • Cohort & Generation - groups of ppl born during same time period 

  • Transition - changes in roles/statuses 

  • Trajectory - long term patterns of stability and change 

  • Linked lives - how are lives are connected to others & broader society 

  • Life event - a significant occurrence that can produce serious effects

Cohort & Generation

• groups of ppl born during same time period 

Transition

changes in roles/statuses

Trajectory

 long term patterns of stability and change

Linked lives

how are lives are connected to others & broader society

Life event

a significant occurrence that can produce serious effects

Turning Point

• life event that redirects our life path

Sociologists often focus on categories like gender, race, ethnicity, etc. b/c they aren’t just personal traits but because…

Affect …

they are socially organized categories that produce social inequality

Affect power, status, resources, life chances, lived experiences

Differentiation

• sorting of ppl into different groups (often into groups w/ unequal power/resources) i.e., white/black/Asian

Stratification

• ongoing, systemic forms of differentiation that determine/reinforce who gets what, when, & why 

cause or consequence: Families can be of various forms of … (but also as sites of resilience, meaning & power, safety too) 

inequality

Advantages or disadvantages transmitted through families e.g.

money, education, social networks, expectations

Broader inequalities shape family options & daily life e.g.

family formation, caregiving responsibilities

About %(1.8 million) of Canadian population identifies as Indigenous; population is fastest growing in Canada & youngest 

5

IndiBut…lower life expectancy; less (quality) education; more teenage pregnancy; higher alcohol/substance use issues; poverty; employment discrimination; rural isolation 

• Many inequalities are larger for

• those living on reserve