Deborah Chambers - A Sociology of Family Life

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2nd Edition

DEBORAH CHAMBERS & PABLO GRACIA

polity

Copyright © Deborah Chambers & Pablo Gracia 2022

The right of Deborah Chambers & Pablo Gracia to be identified as Authors of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

First edition published in 2012 by Polity Press

This second edition first published in 2022 by Polity Press

Polity Press

65 Bridge Street

Cambridge CB2 1UR, UK

Polity Press

101 Station Landing

Suite 300

Medford, MA 02155, USA

All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purpose of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

ISBN-13: 978-1-5095-4135-5

ISBN-13: 978-1-5095-4136-2 (pb)

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2021939310

by Fakenham Prepress Solutions, Fakenham, Norfolk NR21 8NL

The publisher has used its best endeavours to ensure that the URLs for external websites referred to in this book are correct and active at the time of going to press. However, the publisher has no responsibility for the websites and can make no guarantee that a site will remain live or that the content is or will remain appropriate.

Every effort has been made to trace all copyright holders, but if any have been overlooked the publisher will be pleased to include any necessary credits in any subsequent reprint or edition.

For further information on Polity, visit our website: politybooks.com

This second edition of the key text A Sociology of Family Life forms an authoritative guide to sociological debates about family life, intimacies and personal relationships. The book provides a topical and comprehensive guide to key sociological debates and empirical research on personal and family life. It draws together, in an accessible form, some of the most significant concepts, approaches and events that have contributed to sociological research on family life and intimacies. This edition has been revised throughout. It could not have happened without Pablo Gracia’s superb co-authorship.

This new edition includes:

revised and updated chapters

coverage of recent development in the field

coverage of pertinent new movements, debates and events

an extensive updated set of references

a set of questions for reflection and discussion at the ends of chapters.

We extend our thanks to the following:

our respective universities, Newcastle University and Trinity College Dublin, for their supportive research environments

Jonathan Skerrett, commissioning editor at Polity for his excellent guidance in facilitating the production of this second edition and, most importantly, for inviting Pablo Gracia to collaborate in the project

Séan Lennon for his excellent contribution as research assistant in conducting an exhaustive literature review, editing references and making relevant suggestions for the new content of the book

our families, friends and personal communities who have supported and sustained us while the book was written, both before and during the Covid-19 lockdown.

Deborah Chambers and Pablo Gracia

Newcastle and Dublin

April 2021

Recent scholarship on personal relationships and family life suggests that new intimacies and new kinds of commitment are being forged in present-day societies. Relationships and living arrangements that are now commonplace include single-parent families, cohabiting couples, post-divorce and ‘blended’ families, same-sex unions, ‘living apart but together’ (LATS), ‘families of choice’, ‘friends as family’ and queer intimacies. Family diversity is said to have coincided with aspirations towards more ‘democratic relationships’ in the sphere of intimacy. Strong desires for more egalitarian and more open personal relationships influences not only how parents relate to their children, with a new emphasis on childhood agency and the rights of the child. They also legitimate lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ+) relationships. 1

Rising divorce rates, teenage pregnancies, single parenthood, same-sex unions and cohabiting couples are often viewed as threats to the core values of a society. However, this book explains that these trends do not amount to evidence of a decline of commitment and caregiving responsibilities. The wide range of personal relationships and living arrangements across societies is a sign that the concept of ‘family’ is becoming more fluid and variable. The approval and popularity of the term ‘family’, which is being extended to describe close friendships and alternative kinds of intimacies, suggest a strong social yearning to preserve principles of mutual commitment and reciprocity that bind people together. This diversity in living arrangements thrives despite government attempts to standardize families through housing policies, tax breaks for married couples, divorce and post-divorce parenting laws, family planning, and levels of access to new reproductive technologies, and so on.