Post-modernist Approach

• Post-modernists believe that society has become unstable due to choice and change
• Beck argues that we live in a 'risk society' and traditions have become less influential over family relations
• Beck says people now have 'negotiated families' that can vary across all people
• Giddens says there is more choice in a family, such as contraception which means people can be intimate without the need reproduction which used to be the reason families were created
• Giddens says people can now have 'pure relationships'
• 'Pure Relationships' (Giddens) mean relationships operate on the assumption that feelings are not permanent and can be unstable