Choices and Constraints in Family Life
ISBN13: 9780195421057ISBN10: 0195421051
Paperback,
216 pages
Oct 2007,
In Stock
Price:
$39.95 (06)See more from the series
Description
Compared to a few generations ago, our intimate relationships now involve more personal choices about our partners and sexual behavior. However, personal choices are also shaped by our family circumstances and events in the wider society, such as changes in educational opportunities, employment trends, social policies, technological innovations, media representations, and new ideas about human rights or personal entitlements. Patterns are noticeable in family life, including rising rates of cohabitation among both heterosexual and same-sex couples, fewer births but more outside marriage, and higher rates of separation, re-partnering and stepfamilies. In fact, similar trends are apparent in most western industrialized countries.New public expectations have heightened controversies about who is responsible for protecting and supporting vulnerable family members and those in need. Public debates have also questioned the validity of new forms of marriage, sought solutions to declining fertility and the enforcement of child support after separation, and examined new ways of interacting with immigrants whose family practices diverge from the majority.
This book aims to understand how relationships and family practices have changed over the past decades in western industrialized countries, and to differentiate between actual changes and the misconceptions voiced in political speeches or perpetuated in the media. Discussions of social research will reveal that our personal choices about intimate partners, having children, dissolving relationships, and maintaining contact with parents and siblings are influenced by our family and cultural upbringing, our socioeconomic circumstances, the social policy environment, and political and economic events in the larger society. This means that the nature of family and personal life is always changing although some aspects remain remarkably stable.
By examining relationships and families in Canada within a global context, we are better able to understand the diverse factors that influence personal choices about love, sex and marriage.
Features
- Examines families within their historical and cross-cultural contexts--The cross-cultural emphasis provides students with an understanding of the diversity of families in Canada and of the inequalities faced by families because of power hierarchies in the society, in particular those based on race and sexuality. The historical approach gives students a sense of how family patterns in Canada have changed over time.
- Focuses on Canada within a global context--Baker uses international data for comparisons and contextualizes family life within broader structural concerns such as the economy and government policy.
- Recognizes the diversity of Canadian families-- Discusses conceptions of "family" as the product of specific cultural and historical contexts, examining "blended" families, lone-parent households, "childless by choice" families, and same-sex marriages.
- Provides fresh insights on family policy in Canada with respect to social welfare, education, immigration, and the economy.
- Interdisciplinary approach--Draws on the latest research in sociology, psychology, anthropology, and social history
- Covers both macro-social and micro-social aspects of families, paying attention to both the social structure and cultural aspects of families issues and the personal consequences of these issues in the lives of individuals.
- Pedagogical aids--Each chapter includes learning objectives, a text box, a chapter summary, critical thinking questions, annotated readings and suggested websites for further research.
About the Author(s)
Maureen Baker is Professor of Sociology at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. She has taught at several Canadian universities including the University of Toronto and McGill University, as well as in Australia. She has also worked as a senior researcher for Canada's Parliament, specializing in social policy issues relating to families and women. She is author of many books and articles on family and social issues including Restructuring Family Policies: Convergences and Divergences (forthcoming).
