The New Right

• Conservative political perspectives
• Stress traditional values
• Like aggressive functionalists - agree with some points but they want change
• Murray - very critical of single parents (led to a rise in welfare dependency)
• Welfare dependency= people living off benefits rather than working
• boys have no male model/father figure
• family - nuclear family is ideal, should be married, domestic division of labour (man= breadwinner, woman= housewife)
• education - current education system is failing because its controlled by the government (there should be an education market, run like a business)
• Education market= schools should respond directly to the needs and demands of the consumer (parents and students)

  • argues that competition will increase educational standards
• postmodernism - old ways of explaining society don't work anymore (feminism, marxism, functionalism), rejects the meta-narratives

  -society changed from modernist into postmodern society, diversity + uncertainty
• Modern age:

  • production
  • social class
  • family
  • nationhood
  • (structures/security/stability)
  • "You knew who you are"
• Postmodern age:

  • consumption
  • identity from other sources
  • families (many options)
  • global
  • (confusion/lack of structure/incessant choice)
  • "You create who you want to be"
• identity - people create their own identities through their personal consumption, goods + services they choose to buy