FAMILY

Family and social scientists

Family and social scientists

Introduction

Is there a global revolution going on in how we think about ourselves, and how we form ties and connections with others, that is fundamentally shifting our understanding of family? Social theorists point to demographic changes going on in advanced Western industrial nations, notably the rise in divorce, the delay of marriage, the increase of cohabitation, the dissociation of childbirth and marriage. They also cite the challenge that gender egalitarianism and the labour market has posed for traditional gender roles, especially in terms of women's increased participation in education. Elisabeth Beck-Gernsheim is not alone in insisting that 'of all the changes shaking the world today, none is more important to us than those which affect the core of our personal life - sexuality, love and marriage, relationships and parenthood'. (Bengston et.el, 2005)

Discussion and Analysis

The revolutionary transformations of family and personal life have provoked resistance, particularly from religious fundamentalists. Recently, two US political scientists, Ingelhart and Norris, have taken issue with Samuel Huntington's thesis about democracy being the cultural fault-line dividing the West and Islamic world. Using data from the World Values Survey, a study of attitudes across some seventy nations, they conclude that the 'true clash of civilizations' is about sex and family values, and changes in the role of women. (Berardo & Constance, 2004)

Large claims about revolutionary change and cultural divides, which derive from grand theories of modernization and globalization, are likely to be overly general. More specific claims may be made as a result of empirical work that examines the nature and consequences of particular aspects of family change and continuity, but apparently empirical statements often go far beyond what is known. And both the theoretical and the empirical literature is frequently coloured by ideology (liberal or conservative).

The strength of convictions about what constitutes an ideal family poses considerable challenges for social science. For example, there has been a good deal of research in both Europe and North America on the consequences of family diversity and family disruption for both children and adults. However, the results are often highly contentious.

There is no denying that in many societies the scripts have become less binding. Beck and Beck-Gernsheim refer to this process as 'institutional individualization'. They suggest that within the family institution, there is a normalization of diversity. Previously deviant family forms - single-parent families, cohabiting parents, lesbian and gay families, postdivorce families - have now become more normal and more acceptable. Certainly, any contemporary study of families must take seriously the enormous variations in family life across time and place. Authors go out of their way to use the plural 'Families' to deliberately avoid the misleading static and universal terminology of 'the Family'. (White & David, 2002)

The demographer Kathleen Kiernan has surveyed the evidence of changing partnership and parenting patterns in Europe and in the USA. She summarize that the anxiety articulated in the writing arises mainly from the actuality that in the recent era cohabiting unions are more frail ...