postmodern

• CID


  in a postmodern society

  -increase in choice

  -change in identity (gender, religion)

  -diversity (different ways to live)
• life course


  path in life

  -once fixed (1950s) but now diverse
• creative singlehood

  choosing to remain single as a lifestyle choice
• childfree


  choosing not to have children
• giddens


  -relationships are less stable

  -we have greater choice in what relationships we maintain

  -confluent love- only lasts as long as partners find satisfaction and fufillment (selfish)

  -in search of pure relationship (perfect)
• beck risk society 


  -live in a world of uncertainty

  -risk of losing family stability

  -individualism-increased choice

  -more relationship breakdowns
• negotiated family-beck


  does not conform to any one standard of what family should be
• conclusion of Beck and Giddens


  -more diversity and choice in family structure

  -difficult to define family

  -more fragmentation of roles

  -we will experience different families at different points in our life course
• criticisms of giddens and beck


  -half population still belong to a 2 parent household

  -ethnocentric- white western societies

  -most of us want the ideal cereal packet family
• egoistic society/ me generation


  selfish society based on self interest
• zombie family-beck


  family is subject to risk and more uncertainty than ever before it appears to be alive but in reality its dead
• fictive kin


  close friends who are treated as relatives
• smart 


  -family is subjective based on individual

  -donor recieved children some find social relationships to be more important than genetic
• critique of smart


  -too broad and includes a wide range of relationships and ignores uniqueness based soley on blood and marriage
• smart 5 key terms to describe family


  -memory-close link with emotion

  -biography-life course

  -embeddedness- our experiences can shape who we become

  -relationality-the nature of a relationship is more important than their position in family structure

  -imaginary-the way we imagine our life to be can effect how it turns out
• honour killings


  -estimated at least 8 honour crimes a day

  -suicide rates among asian females is 3x the average

  -organised and violent

  -middle eastern and asian communities believe in controlling women