socio

• BECK (LATE MODERN)


  - risk soc

  -> marriage etc no longer rooted in financial stability (for woman) bc in a PM soc w individualism (consequential to risk) women look for it themselves

  -> 60% of fams are dual career
• how do PM approaches to family differ from structural approaches?


  - interactionist, micro

  -> nuclear fam not presented as ideal OR inherently wrong; just what works for individuals
• personal life perspective?


  - cannot generalise abt family experience

  -> must account for events that happen over the course of someone's life

  -> family is unpredictable etc
• VANESSA MAY & eval?

  - changes in society have meant that people draw meaning from relationships outside of the family

  -> rise in lone parent households for eg -> functions of fam fulfilled by others

  
  

  ->> MURRAY would claim that function is not fulfilled adequately
• STACEY & eval


  - there has been a move away from a single dominant family type (only 38% of family in UK is nuclear)

  -> development of the PM fam has destroyed the idea that family progresses through logical stages

  ->> acknowledges that PM can bring instability but welcomes it as an opportunity to develop an egalitarian institution

  
  

  
  

  ->> eval: overestimates the journey of family types

  -> most ppl only exp 1 or 2 in their lifetime
• NORDGIST & SMART


  - relative strangers

  -> arg family is not defined by blood
• GERMSHEIM & STACY


  - trad relationships being replaced w more diverse ones

  -> eg people no longer bound by trad ideas abt marriage

  ->> indicated by 5.9 million people cohabiting in 2012 (double what it was in 1996)
• STACEY (women)


  - more and more women are able to choose to leave their families & establish new ones

  -> identified new type of non familial rship: when women = divorced but still in contact w ex in laws
• SMART (ethno....)


  - socio of family is ethnocentric

  -> focused on white mc family
• SMART (connectivity thesis) & eval


  - examined diff aspects of family life( that influence rships ) she claimed had been neglected by trad approaches to fam

  
  

  1) memory

  2) biography

  3) embeddedness

  4) rationality

  5) imagination

  
  

  
  

  ->> eval: small scale research, only looked at atypical fams
• HAKIM & eval?


  - voluntary childlessness aided by contraceptive rev

  ->> women w choice -> fam diversity

  
  

  ->> eval: western view
• CHAMBERS


  - children in a PM world have autonomy to regulate and determine rship with parents
• monogamy, serial monogamy


  - Monogamy practiced in the UK; legally men and women can only be married to one wife or husband at any one time

  - Serial monogamy- having multiple marriages within a lifetime but still maintaining one partner in the current relationship
• Polygamy


  - Common global phenomenon, having multiple partners at the same time
• KHAN and polyandry


  - Polyandry- when a culture or religion allows a MAN to have more than one wife

  ->> KHAN- estimates that there may be as many as 20000 polyandrous Muslim marriages in the UK
• STARKWEATHER and HAMES on polygyny


  - Polygyny- when a culture/ religion allows women to have more than one husband

  - > SW&H- identified nearly 80 cultural groups that practice it
• GMR (general marriage rate)

  -Number of men and women that get married in any given year per 1000 men and women aged 16+
• Civil ceremonies vs religious ( stats )

  1981, civil- 172514

  2012,civil- 184320

  
  

  1981, religious- 179459

  2012, religious- 77,912

  
  

  SECULARISATION
• Social class and marriage (ONS report)


  - ONS report suggests that there may be a social class divide in marriage

  -> 2012- 66% of people in social class 1 (professionals) were married

  -> Contrast 44% in social class 7 (unskilled manual workers)
• CORSE et al


  - Found that in the USA, the decline in full time factory jobs and the rise of unstable employment meant that people are less likely to get married and stay married

  -> Also less likely to have children
• BERHOUD British African Caribbean marriages


  - Characterised by modern individualism

  - Focused on their relationship not tradition

  - Marriage is a lifestyle choice

  - Low rates of marriage, high rate of lone parenthood

  -> over 50% of AC women are never married and are lone parents

  ->> contrasts 1 in 10 white women

  - Mixed partnerships are common

  ->> 50% of BM with WW and 30% of BW with WM
• BERTHOUD south Asian marriages

  - Claims that when looking at SA marriages it is most important to look at HOW people got married (love vs arranged)

  
  

  -> Traditional approach to marriage

  -> 75% of Pakistani ad bang women are married by 25

  -> 2/3 of Indian women (married by 25)

  -> 1/2 WW

  -> Majority of Pakistani and Bang women look after home and family
• MORGAN (NR) views of marriage


  - Expressed concerns about the decline in a marriage

  -> Claims it is centrally important in soc ,morality and social order because it involves unique attachments, obligations and respect

  -> Argues that marriage makes people better lovers, parents, workers and citz because marriage promotes social duties

  -> Clams that social policy is to blame for he decline in marriage
• RECTOR (NR)


  - Blames welfare state

  -> Benefit system has encouraged single PH at the expense of married PH by reducing the financial need for marriage

  -> 'Less educated mothers married to the state
• Critiques of the NR view of marriage

  - FEMINIST thinkers disagree and claim that the decline in marriage reflects pos social change

  -> Changes in attitude- 1970s saw shift towards marital attitudes, it was no longer seen as a status and became something personal

  -> Patriarchal notion of marriage replaced by an egalitarian view of marriage

  -> Changes in significance- marriage has now become an emotional commitment, people delay it until they feel they are ready

  The institute of marriage has therefore become stronger not weaker

  
  

  -> BRITISH SOCIAL ATTITUDES SURVEY- people still strive for marriage

  -> 40% of marriages are remarriages ( even if one fails people still wish to pursue another, shows importance)

  -> Changes in the cost of marriage- avg cost = £50,000

  -> Recession and austerity has become the norm in westerns society could account for 7.5% decline in marriage for social class 7 since 2001

  
  

  ->>> Ultimately, there's a concern that the NR have exaggerated the decline in marriage
• Arranged marriage (EPSTEIN)


  - Common among Muslims, orthodox Jewish people, Hindus,Sikhs

  -> Consented, mutual

  -> EPSTEIN- interviewed more than 100 Indian,Pakistani, and O Jewish couples and found:

  
  

  ->> Arranged marriages grow more stable as time goes on, love marriages are more likely to deteriorate

  ->> Those in arranged marriages fell more in love as time went on, opposite for love marriages

  ->> Arranged couples have more confidence in their partners
• Forced marriages


  - Still exist in the UK

  -> in 2005 the gov set up a forced marriage unit

  -> 2013: 1302 forced marriages

  Difficult to assess stats

  -> 2010-14 - 11000 uk honour crimes reported
• Same sex marriage


  - The marriage act 2013- legalised same sex marriage either in a civil partnership or if a religious org allows it

  
  

  ->> MORGAN (NR) - objects because she argues it shows a rejection of Christian values and general morals

  ->> Argues alternative secular ideologies which focus on sexual family diversity undermines the moral authority of religious institutions ad the nuclear fam

  ->> Argues this ideology is promoted by social policy
• Cohabitation ons stats


  - 2012- 5.9mil people cohab in the uk ( double that in 1996)
• MORGAN on cohabiting


  - Refers to cohabitation as 'marriage lite' as CC are 'less happy, unfaithful, abusive' etc
• MURPHY on cohab


  - Analysed 2007 ONS data and claimed that children whose parents are not married get worse results in school NR have higher risk of developing serious mental illness
• BEAUJOUPAN AND BHROLCHAIN (Cohab)


  - critic of NR view of cohab

  -> argues it has become a normal part pf the life course

  -> no longer seen as deviant or immoral

  -> argues that it almost a trial run for marriage
• practical reasons for cohabiting

  - people may be separated and waiting for a divorce, in the meantime they are cohabiting with a new partner they intend to marry
• BARLOW and DUNCAN


  - the importance of a lavish wedding may be one of the reasons ppl cohab

  ->> waiting till they can afford the wedding they desire
• JAMIESON et al


  - looked into meaning of marriage, cohab and commitment for people 20-29

  - couples may see cohab as the beginning of a perm partnership, testing if a rship is healthy

  -attach little value to cohab., see it as pragmatic w/ no expectations

  - most exp. cohab. to evolve into marriage
• shell marriages


  - couples stay together in name only

  -> no love/intimacy

  -> may be for children or religious reasons
• separation


  - couples live apart

  -> not yet divorced
• increase in divorce between 72 and 93 (changes in the law)

  - divorce reform act 1969 (came into practice in '72)

  -> made divorce easier, cheaper

  -> many couples in empty shell marriages could now afford to divorce
• increase in divorce between 72 and 93 (attitudes)

  - functionalists: higher divorce rates show that people now value marriage more

  -> couples want more than just companionship

  
  

  -feminist: womens expectations have changed

  -> in 2012 65% of divorces were initiated by women

  women expect more than men in a rship

  -> HART- women becoming increasingly frustrated with having to balance a career and childcare (feminisation of the econ.)
• increase in divorce between 72 and 93 (secularisation)

  -decline inn religious beliefs means that less stigma is attached to div.