every sociologist (year 12)

• Ronald Fletcher - divorce?

  • 1966
  • Functionalist
  • argues the higher expectations of marriage increase divorce rates as less are willing to tolerate staying in an unhappy marriage
• Giddens - divorce?

  • 1992
  • Postmodern
  • Pure relationship refers to when a relationship exists solely to satisfy each other's partner's needs without consideration for children, resulting in higher divorce rates
• Murdock - family definition?

  • 1949
  • Functionalist
  • family is a social group characterised by common residence, economic cooperation, and reproduction. It includes adults of both sexes, at least two of whom maintain a socially approved sexual relationship
• Murdock - Family functions?

  • 1949
  • Functionalist
  • the family performs four vital functions: sexual, reproductive, economic and educational (socialisation)
• Parsons - family functions?

  • 1955
  • Functionalist
  • the type of family will 'fit' the needs of the society where it is found, meaning the functions the family performs is dependent on the needs of society
  • argues the family has two essential functions: primary socialization of children, stabilization of adult personalities
  • families are 'personality factories', central to value consensus and therefore the order of society
  • warm bath theory: family acts as a 'warm bath', easing away the tensions of the day enabling adults to do their work refreshed
• Laslett - family functions?

  • 1972
  • opposes funtional fit theory, arguing the pre-industrial family was nuclear not extended
• Young & Wilmott - family functions?

  • 1973
  • hardship of the early industrial period gave rise to a 'mum-centered' working-class centered family
• Hareven - family functions?

  • 1999
  • extended family, not nuclear, was the best structure, best equipped to meet the needs of early industrial society
• Engles - family functions (1884)?

  • Marxist
  • family has the economic function of keeping wealth amongst the bourgeoisie, ensured inheritance went to 'rightful heir' before DNA testing
• Engels - family functions (1891)?

  • Marxist
  • in the early classless societies there were no restrictions on sexual relationships, as wealth increased so did private property, developing the patriarchal monogamous nuclear family
• Zaretsky - family functions?

  • 1976
  • Marxist
  • family is the one place where proletariat have power and control, relieves frustration about low status
• Marcuse - family functions?

  • 1964
  • Marxist
  • working class families are encouraged to pursue false needs through consumerism, 'keeping up with the Joneses'
• Somerville - family functions?

  • 2000
  • Feminist
  • Argues Zaretsky overemphasizes the refuge family provides from capitalism, underestimating cruelty/violence/neglect within family
• Stacey - Family diversity?

  • 1998
  • Feminist
  • Greater freedom and choice has benefitted women, freeing them from patriarchal oppression and shape family arrangements to suit their needs
  • women are main agents of change in the family
• Morgan - Family diversity?

  • 2011
  • Personal life perspective
  • pointless to make large scale generalizations like functionalists do, family is simply whatever arrangement works for those involved
• Giddens - family diversity?

  • 1992
  • Postmodern
  • family and marriages have been transformed by greater choice, such as contraception, and women gaining independence
  • relationships are based on choice and equality, 'pure relationships' are no longer bound by traditional norms that only exist when in the interest of partners to do so
• Beck - family diversity?

  • 1992
  • Individualism
  • the negotiated family: argues 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: the family appears to be alive but it 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?

  • 1997
  • Feminist
  • argues the New Right are wrong to assume gender roles are biological, and their reaction is a negative reaction to feminist gains
  • argues conventional families are based on the patriarchal oppression of women
• Smart - family diversity?

  • 2011
  • Personal life perspective
  • argues that poverty may be the cause of family breakdowns, not an increase in cohabitation
• Chester - family diversity?

  • 1985
  • Functionalist
  • increased family diversity in recent years but this is neither good or bad
  • most people live in dual-earner families but the nuclear family is still aspired to
• Rapoport & Rapoport - family diversity?

  • 1982
  • Diversity is positive and there are five types: organisational, cultural, social class, life stage, generational
• Benson - family diversity?

  • 2010
  • New right
  • couples are more stable when married, the rate of divorce is lower amongst married couples than cohabiting couples
• Beck - family diversity?

  • 1992
  • 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?

  • 2000
  • liberal
  • argues many feminists fail to recognize the progress made by women, suggesting women can discard men and can gain fulfillment from having childern
• Greer - family feminism?

  • 2000
  • radical
  • argued for creation of all-female or matriarchal households as an alternative to the heterosexual family
• Benston - family feminism?

  • 1972
  • 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?

  • 1972
  • Marxist
  • women are 'takers of shit', after the workday men channel their anger at their wives instead of at 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 women to become an anti-slavery speaker, and is a founding woman of the American women's suffrage association
• Grenshaw - family feminism?

  • intersectional
  • authored '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?

  • 1966
  • Functionalist
  • argues the development of the welfare state helps support the family performing functions
• Foucault - family policy?

  • 1976
  • 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 over families as a way of 'policing the family' - the lower class were more surveilled
• Condry - family policy?

  • 2007
  • the distribution of 'parenting orders' by the courts is seen as a means of enforcing the 'correct way' to bring up children
• Murray - family policy?

  • 1984
  • new right
  • believes in self reliance and freedom from the state, so opposed to policies such as benefits which promote welfare dependency
• Almond - family policy?

  • 2006
  • New Right
  • argues state policies such a divorce and civil partnerships have undermined the family
• Wallace & Abbot - family policy?

  • 1992
  • reducing benefits would put many families into greater poverty and make them then more reliant on the state
• Land - family policy?

  • 1978
  • feminism
  • policies are often based on assumptions of the 'normal' family, with an assumption of a patriarchal nuclear family
• Cohen - family demographics?

  • 2006
  • Marxist
  • identified three different types of migrant: permanent settlers, temporary workers, spouses and forced migrants (refugees)