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Families in Context - Extensive Summary
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Extensive Summary of the lectures of Families in Context, part of the sociology Bachelor and pre-master program.
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INHOUDSOPGAVEFamilies in context - lecture 1 ............................................................................................................................................ 2
does the definition of ‘family’ matter? ....................................................................................................................................2
Families in context - lecture 2 .......................................................................................................................................... 10
life courses in context ............................................................................................................................................................10
Families in context - lecture 3 .......................................................................................................................................... 17
Who partners? And with whom? Does it matter? .................................................................................................................17
Families in context - lecture 4 .......................................................................................................................................... 25
(not) becoming a parent and does the transition matter? ....................................................................................................25
Families in context - lecture 5 .......................................................................................................................................... 38
Parenting and social class......................................................................................................................................................38
Families in context - lecture 6 .......................................................................................................................................... 46
who does what within families ..............................................................................................................................................46
Families in context - lecture 7 .......................................................................................................................................... 56
ending partnerships and what happens after? ......................................................................................................................56
Families in context - lecture 9 .......................................................................................................................................... 66
Intergenerational relationships: The strength of parent-child ties ........................................................................................66
1
,FAMILIES IN CONTEXT - LECTURE 1
DOES THE DEFINITION OF ‘FAMILY’ MATTER?
DOES THE DEFINITION OF ‘FAMILY’ MATTER?
Law
• Obligations (e.g., to provide care – filial responsibility)
• Rights (e.g., decision-making, migration)
Credibility / “value” (e.g., “to start a family”)
POSSIBLE DEFINITION
“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?
Based on legally endorsed and biological ties.
IF WE DEPART FROM SUCH A DEFINITION:
“an unprecedented decline of the family as a social institution”
• Researchers in the 90’s were worried about what they were seeing within families and the definition.
What is this fear based on? à this is based on a research from the Netherlands:
PARTNERSHIPS: DIVORCE
% Dutch 15-year-olds who experienced parental death or divorce, by birth generation
There was a very rapid increase in divorce
2
,IN MARRIAGE
There was also a drop in non-married people in the Netherlands
You see across time, legally partnerships and marriage really dropped.
FERTILITY: NUMBER OF CHILDREN PER WOMAN
In several countries you see a lot of drops in fertility. There are less children per family.
3
, UNPRECEDENTED DECLINE OF ‘THE’ FAMILY?
Is there a problem with endorsing this point of view? That we see a decline of a family as a social institution?
• Endorsing that statement means that anything deviating from ‘the’ pattern is “unusual, or even exotic”
(Nauck, 2021, p.42)
• However, that vision of “the” family captured a specific moment in time (and definitely: the experience of
a specific group/place).
DIVERSITY HAS ALWAYS BEEN THE NAME OF THE GAME
We have always seen massive diversity in family forms. How
Numerous examples of diversity rather than uniformity
Disclaimer: This divide could also be an oversimplification; meaningful diversity found within regions too (see
Szoltysek, 2015).
Abundance of other examples of family variations even within countries
• Coontz, S. (1992/2016). The way we never were: American families and the nostalgia trap. New York, NY:
Basic Books.
• Gillis, J. R. (1996). A world of their own making: Myth, rituals, and the quest for family values. Cambridge,
MA: Harvard University Press.
BACK TO 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)
4
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