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Postmodernism & Family Diversity - Giddens, Beck + Personal Life Perspective
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Postmodernism & Family Diversity - Giddens, Beck + Personal Life Perspective
The individualisation thesis
- Giddens
- Beck
- do-it-yourself biography > standard biography
- instead of growing up to a certain path already made up for you, you decide your own life and make your own choices.
- do-it-yourself biography > standard biography
- traditional social structures such as class, gender and family have less influence on us
- people can choose their own life path, fixed roles are no longer a thing
- e.g. people were expected to get married and to take up their appropriate gender role
- DISEMBEDDED
- people can choose their own life path, fixed roles are no longer a thing
- Individualisation thesis' criticism
- it exaggerates how much choice we have about family relationships
- traditional norms still limit people's choices
- we are not free floating individuals
Giddens
- Choice & equality
- family and marriage has been transformed by greater choice and more equality between women and men.
- Contraception
- sex + intimacy > reproduction
- Feminism
- more independence due to feminism and more opportunities in education and work
- IN THE PAST relationships were traditionally held together by laws or tradition
- TODAY couples are free to define their relationship themselves
- e.g. nowadays, couples don't have to marry to have children and divorce is readily accessible
- TODAY couples are free to define their relationship themselves
- Choice & equality
Giddens
- Relationships
- Relationships no longer held together by law, religion, social norms or traditional institutions
- The pure relationship
- individual choice & equality
- solely existent to satisfy each partner's needs
- held together by love, happiness and sexual attraction
- + choice = - stability
- relationship as a rolling contract rather than permanent commitment
- + FAMILY DIVERSITY
- lone-parent families
- one person households
- stepfamilies
- and more
- + FAMILY DIVERSITY
- relationship as a rolling contract rather than permanent commitment
- The pure relationship
- Relationships no longer held together by law, religion, social norms or traditional institutions
- Relationships
Giddens
- Same sex couples as pioneers
- creating new family types
- creating more democratic and equal relationships
- not influenced by tradition like heterosexual relationships
- family structure based on each partner's needs rather than traditional pre-existing norms
- Weeks
- friendship networks functioned as kinship networks to gay and lesbian couples
- Weeks
- family structure based on each partner's needs rather than traditional pre-existing norms
- Same sex couples as pioneers
Beck
- The negotiated family
- risk socetiety
- tradition has less influence and people have more choice
- making choices involves calculating the risks and rewards of the different options open to us
- greater gender equality
- women now expect equality both at work and marriage
- greater individualism
- people's actions are based on self-interest rather than by obligation to others
- patriarchal family replacement
- according to the members' expectations and whishes
- + equal = - stable
- individuals are free to leave if their needs are not met
- + family diversity
- individuals are free to leave if their needs are not met
- risk socetiety
- The negotiated family
The Zombie Family
- people turn to the family looking for security, in reality family relationships are facing more risk and uncertainty than ever before
- family cannot offer stability neither security anymore therefore its members can't lean on it looking for support
- it appears to be alive but it's in fact dead
- Beck
- people turn to the family looking for security, in reality family relationships are facing more risk and uncertainty than ever before
The Personal Life Perspective
- Smart
- May