Summary of all the lectures of Families in Context (FiC) at Tilburg University given in 2024 by prof. Ivanova. The summary is fully in English and additional tips and exam questions mentioned by the lecturer are added. I also have a summary on my account with all the literture for this course. Thes...
Lecture 1 - The family: what is it and why study it?....................................................................... 2
Lecture 2 - Life courses in context.................................................................................................8
Lecture 3 - Partnerships: Who partners? With whom? Does it matter?.......................................14
Lecture 4 - Becoming a parent and does the transition matter?..................................................20
Lecture 5 - Parenting and social class.........................................................................................26
Lecture 6 - Family and work: who does what within families?..................................................... 30
Lecture 7 + 8 - Ending partnerships and what happens after?....................................................34
Lecture 9 - Intergenerational relationships: the strength of parent-child ties............................... 40
,Lecture 1 - The family: what is it and why study it?
Does the definition of family matter?
Yes: for…
…credibility / value (to start a family)
…law
Obligations (provide care, filial responsibility)
Rights (decision-making, migration)
The family (Murdock) = The family is a social group characterized by common residence,
economic cooperation, and reproduction. It includes adults of both sexes, at least two of whom
maintain a socially approved sexual relationship, and one or more children, own or adopted, of
the sexually cohabiting adults.
> So the traditional (nuclear) family: That is based on legally endorsed and
biological ties.
BUT: An unprecedented decline of the family as a social institution. - Popenoe
This alarm came from different indicators:
A. Partnerships: divorce ->
B. Downgrade in marriage ->
, C. Downgrade in fertility: fewer number of children per woman
Unprecedented decline of the family?
● Endorsing the statement means that anything deviating from the pattern is unusual, or
even exotic. (Nauck)
● However, that vision of the family captured a specific moment in time (and definitely: the
experience of a specific group or place).
Diversity has always been the name of the game
Numerous examples of diversity rather than uniformity.
● Hajnal line: diversity visible within Europe, already prior to the 20th century.
● The same as Naucks European Marriage Pattern (literature).
Disclaimer: This divide
could also be an
oversimplification:
meaningful diversity
found within regions
too (see Szoltysek,
2015).
There is an abundance of other examples of the family variations even within countries.
, Back to the statement: Unprecedented decline of the family
That vision of the family (the traditional nuclear family) captured a specific moment in
time and the experience of a specific group (white, middle-class, parts of Global North).
> More the families we live by rather than the families we live with (Gillis, 1996).
So the focus in this course will be:
● Not on any one explicit understanding of family.
● Focus will be on family-making behaviors (parenting, parenthood, ending partnerships,
exchanging care and support).
● Focus will be on variation and changes in these behaviors across time/space and
crucially: The sources of variation and changes.
○ On structural sources (specificities of labor markets, policies)
○ On cultural sources (ideational changes)
These two feed into each other: culture and structure reflect on each other.
One single definition of family is not possible if everybody needs to agree, so we don’t do that.
So why study changes in family-making behaviors?
- Maybe a most basic reason: literal reproduction of societies.
- Substantial repercussions for a wide-array of political decision making.
Identity: shaping of our social selves.
How we ‘do’ family shapes the next members of society.
● Therefore: reproduction of society.
● Example: Gender identity.
Social cohesion: families as bridges between groups.
Changes in patterns of partner choice can tell us a lot about group closure within a society.
● Families as the ties that bind (meeting 3 and 9)
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