sociologists (full)

• Fletcher - divorce?

  Higher expectations of marriage increase divorce rates as less are willing to tolerate staying in an unhappy marriage
• Giddens - divorce?

  • Postmodernist
  • Pure relationship - when a relationship exists solely to satisfy each other's needs without consideration for children, resulting in higher divorce rates
• Murdock - family functions?

  • Functionalist
  • Family is characterised by common residence, economic cooperation and reproduction
  • Four vital functions: sexual, reproductive, economic and educational (socialisation)
• Parsons - family functions?

  • Functionalist
  • Functional fit theory: family will fit the needs of the society where it is found
  • Two essential functions: primary socialisation of children, stabilisation of adult personalities
  • Families are 'personality factories', central to value consensus and thus the order of society
  • Warm bath theory: family eases away the tensions of the day, allowing adults to work refreshed
• Laslett - family functions?

  Opposes functional fit theory, argues the pre-industrial family was nuclear not extended
• Young and Wilmott - family functions?

  Hardship of the early industrial period gave rise to a 'mum-centred' working-class family
• Hareven - family functions?

  Extended family not the nuclear family was the best structure, best equipped to meet the needs of early industrial society
• Engels - family functions?

  • Family has the economic function of keeping wealth amongst the bourgeoisie, ensured inheritance went to 'rightful heir' before DNA testing
  • In early classless societies there were no restrictions on sexual relationships, as wealth increased so did private property, developing the patriarchal monogamous nuclear family
• Zarestky - family functions?

  • Marxist
  • Family is the one place where proletariat have power and control, relieves frustation about low status
• Marcuse - family functions?

  • Marxist
  • Working class families are encouraged to pursue false needs through consumerism - 'keeping up with the Joneses'
• Somerville - family functions?

  • Feminist
  • Argues Zaretsky overemphasises the refuge the family provides from capitalism, underestimating cruelty/violence/neglect within family
• Stacey - family diversity?

  • Feminist
  • Greater freedom and choice has benefitted women
  • Women are main agents of change in the family
• Morgan - family diversity?

  • Personal life perspective
  • Pointless to make large scale generalisations like functionalists do, family is simply whatever arrangement works for those involved
• Giddens - family diversity?

  • Postmodern
  • Family and marriages have been transformed by greater choice such as contraception, and women gaining independence
  • 'Pure relationships' are no longer bound by traditional norms that only exist when in the interests of the partners to do so
• Beck - family diversity?

  • Individualism
  • Negotiated family: we now live in a 'risk society' where tradition has less influence and people have more choice, conforms to members wishes not social norms 
  • zombie family: family appears alive but is dead, people want the family to be a place of security in an insecure world but the family itself is now too unstable to do this
• Oakley - family diversity?

  • Feminist
  • Argues New Right are wrong to assume gender roles are biological, instead are a reaction to feminist gains
  • Conventional families are based on patriarchal oppression of women
• Smart - family diversity?

  • Personal life
  • Argues poverty may be the cause of family breakdowns, not an increase in cohabitation
• Chester - family diversity?

  • Functionalist
  • Increased family diversity in recent years but neither good or bad, most people live in dual-earner families but the nuclear family is still aspired to
• Rapoport & Rapoport - family diversity?

  • Diversity is positive and there are five types:
  • Organisational
  • Cultural
  • Social class
  • Life stage
  • Generational
• Benson - family diversity?

  • New right
  • Couples are more stable when married, rate of divorce is lower amongst married couples than cohabiting couples
• Beck - family diversity?

  • Individualism
  • The 'standard biography' has been replaced with a 'do-it-yourself biography'
• Wollstonecraft - family feminism?

  • Liberal
  • Argues women are not naturally inferior to men but appear to be only because they lack education
  • Women should be treated as rational beings
• Somerville - family feminism?

  • Liberal
  • Argues many feminists fail to recognise the progress made by women, suggesting women can discard men and can gain fulfillment from having children
• Greer - family feminism?

  • Radical
  • Argued for creation of all-female or 'matriarchal' households as an alternative to the heterosexual family
• Benston - family feminism?

  • Marxist
  • Argues women are the slaves of wage slaves, they service and satisfy the needs of men who go on to be exploited by their male bosses
• Ansley - family feminism?

  • Marxist
  • Women are 'takers of shit', after the workday men channel their anger at their wives instead of challenging the capitalist system
• Collins - family feminism?

  • Black
  • Suggests intellectual discourse is dominated by ideas of educated white men
  • Argues anti-racist US politics must address gender issues
• Harper - family feminism?

  • Black
  • The first black woman to become an anti-slavery speaker,
  • A founding woman of the American women's suffrage association
• Grenshaw - family feminism?

  • Intersectional
  • Wrote 'Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex', bringing recognition to the idea of intersectionality to explain the oppression of African American women
• Fletcher - family policy?

  • Functionalist
  • Argued development of the welfare state helps support the family performing functions
• Foucalt - family policy?

  • Conflict
  • Saw power as being exercised by the government through surveillance
• Donzelot - family policy?

  • Conflict
  • Sees policies as a form of state power and control of families with policy as a way of 'policing the family'
  • Lower class more surveilled
• Condry - family policy?

  • Distribution of 'parenting orders' by the courts is seen as a means of enforcing the 'correct way' to bring up children
• Murray - family policy?

  • New Right
  • Believes in self reliance and freedom from the state
  • Opposes policies such as benefits which promote welfare dependency
• Almond - family policy?

  • New Right
  • State policies such as divorce and civil partnerships have undermined the family
• Wallace & Abbot - family policy?

  • Reducing benefits would put many families into greater poverty and make them more reliant on the state
• Land - family policy?

  • Feminist
  • Policies are often based on assumptions of the 'normal' family -> the patriarchal nuclear family
• Cohen - demographics?

  • Marxist
  • Identified three different types of migrant:
  • permanent settlers
  • temporary workers
  • spouses and forced migrants (refugees)
• Philipson - demographics?

  • Marxist
  • Old people do not serve capitalism, so therefore the state doesn't care about them
• McKeown - demographics?

  • Decreasing death rate, result of improved nutrition halving death rates