Post-modernism and the nuclear family

• Stacey (post modernist)

  • argues that greater freedom and choice has benefitted women
  • free of patriarchal oppression
  • used life history interviews and found that women rather than men have been the main agents changes in the family
  • If we divorce, we may keep in touch with the former in-laws, even if we remarry. Our second or third husband/wife may bring family members into the new family from previous relationships - this creates a new family type: the divorce-extended family
• individualisation thesis


  when a person is more individualised and has more self control, choice and consumption
• Giddens (confluent love)


  plastic sexuality - involves sex being freed from its association with childbirth

  confluent love - family and marriage has transformed over the recent decades by greater choice and equality

  pure relationships - no longer bound by traditional norms
• Bauman (liquid love)

  • believes people now just get with people for the benefits
  • love in todays society is not true due to things such as dating apps
  • suggested relationships are fragile and based upon consumerist transactions
  • greater focus on the self which leads to connections with others rather than relationships based on satisfying needs
  • insecurity in maintaining relationships and preference for flexible relationships developing contrasting ideas of what a relationship is
• Beck (risk society)

  • society is full of uncertainty and risk
  • no security in families
  • zombie families due to the increase of anxiety
  • negotiated families due to gender roles being left undecided
• overview

  • society has now entered a new chaotic postmodern stage
  • no longer one single dominant stable family structure such as the nuclear family
  • family structures have become fragmented into many different types and individuals now have much more choice about their lifestyles, relationships etc
  • some see this diversity as having advantages and disadvantages as it gives individuals greater freedom however it means there is a greater risk of instability