Personal Life Perspective

Personal Life Perspective:

• Changes in the way people live have caused some sociologists to reconsider the study of the family

• Traditional sociology often focused on marriage and blood relations but in contemporary society, people have meaningful relationships with others apart from the family

• The personal life perspective looks at the interactions between people in relationships and the networks that connect individuals

Vanessa May (2011):

• Changes in society have meant that people often draw meaning from relationships outside of the family unit

• Greater diversity of family life and an increase in lone-person households means that functions of the family are often fulfilled by others

• People construct their networks of individuals- including family members- that fulfil their needs

Carol Smart (2007):

• The sociology of the family is ethnocentric- focused mainly on the white middle-class family

• People can develop meaningful relationships with those outside of the family, such as friends

• The family are not necessarily more important than friends and as a consequence, people can choose their support networks or families of choice

• Connectedness thesis

Smart Concepts of Personal Life:

• Smart examined different aspects of personal life that had often been neglected by traditional approaches to the sociology of the family

• She identified five key concepts that were interconnected and influenced the personal relationships that individuals had

• Memory, biography, embeddedness, relationality and imaginary

Memory:

• Emotional memories can influence relationships with others according to Smart

• Our interactions with others are more likely to result in bonds if these memories are meaningful to those involved

• Families can provide context for painful or joyful memories- e.g. birth of children, death, birthdays etc

Biography:

• Our life history influences the relationships we have with others

• Certain pathways such as education, employment, living arrangements and migration can influence the relationships we have in the present

  • Examples- former work colleagues, people lived with at university, people gone travelling with

Embeddedness:

• Embeddedness refers to our connections within interconnected webs of people

• Our relationships are often influenced by who we know and how we are connected to them

• The strength of these connections influences our interactions with others- e.g. may be closer to a friend we see daily than a sibling we rarely see

Relationality:

• This refers to the nature of the relationship with others- how well we get on with the person

• There could be conflict within families, yet friends offer more support

• Victims of domestic violence, and those rejected by families may find comfort in support networks

Imaginary:

• This refers to how relationships are perceived by individuals

• How important is the relationship? What potential does it have? How do people react?

• Most subjective interpretation of relationships- how they imagine others will think or act

Evaluations:

• In opposition to the works of individualisation theorists such as Giddens, Bauman and Beck who argue there is greater choice and individual freedom- smart suggests this is a middle-clas ideal

• Methodologically based on small-scale research which gives us a greater understanding of personal life

• Loss of focus on broader social trends- many people are still influenced by family structures