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In this incisive text, Heaphy introduces the work of Giddens, Bauman, Foucault and Baudrillard to show exactly how the arguments of the great contemporary theorists play out against extended examples from real-life.
Major changes have happened in households and people's lives in most countries in the developed world. Marriage rates have fallen, divorce has risen, women are having fewer children and later in life, and there has been a rise in childbearing outside marriage. One in four families is headed by a lone parent. We are all getting older. These changes have significance that goes beyond the individual families-with implications for housing demand, social security benefits, labour force participation, health, and social services. Changing Britain provides a comprehensive portrait of British families and households at the end of the 20th Century. The book examines more generally the nature of economic and labour market change, Britain's place in Europe, and changing attitudes towards family life. Specifically, the book also deals with issues such as; older people's lives; non-heterosexual families; one-person households; young mothers and single parents; and divorce.
Our families are increasingly a matter of choice, and the choices are widening all the time. This is particularly true of the non-heterosexual world, where the last ten years have seen a popular acceptance of same sex partnerships and, to a lesser extent, of same sex parenting. Based on extensive interviews with people in a variety of non-traditional relationships, this fascinating new book argues that these developments in the non-heterosexual world are closely linked to wider changes in the meaning of family in society at large, and that each can cast light on the other. Same Sex Intimacies gives vivid accounts of the different ways non-heterosexual people have been able to create meaningful intimate relationships for themselves, and highlights the role of individual agency and collective endeavour in forging these roles: as friends, partners, parents and as members of communities. This topical book will provide compelling reading for students of the family, sexuality and lesbian and gay studies.
Offers a conceptual approach to understanding 'personal life', which realigns empirical research with theoretical analysis. This work emphasises ideas of connectedness, relationality and embeddedness, rejecting many of the assumptions found in theories of individualisation and de-traditionalisation by authors such as Beck and Beck Gernsheim.
An indispensible introduction to the sociology of sexuality, discussing its cultural and socio-historical construction, its relationship with power and the State's involvement in its rationalisation and regulation.
Designed for students, academics and the general reader alike, Sexual Politics of Desire and Belonging provides theoretical and empirical insights into the linkages between sexualities and forms of desire, and ways of belonging and relating to others in specific contexts and moments in time. Opening with a substantial introduction by one of the editors, this collection of thirteen essays is organised into three parts, each section making important contributions to contemporary debates regarding the sexual politics of citizenship, marriage, friendship, pornography, intimacies, eroticism and desire. As such, the essays introduce fresh perspectives for thinking about how individuals construct s...
Based on extensive couple and individual interviews with young same sex couples who have legally formalized their relationships, this book argues that same sex marriages as they are lived need to be understood in terms of interlinked developments in lesbian and gay life, heterosexual relationships and in personal life.
New kinds of intimate relationships such as post-divorce families, co-habiting couples, ‘friends as family' and same-sex unions are now commonplace. This book explores the growing diversity of family life by presenting a comprehensive assessment of recent research and theory, and foregrounds new thinking about ‘family', parenting, childhood and personal life. A Sociology of Family Life queries notions of moral decline by revealing a remarkable persistence of commitment and reciprocity across cultures in traditional and new family relations. This insightful and innovative work examines factors such as gender, race, ethnic identity and new sexual lifestyles in relation to cultural customs,...
"Life and Times of a Big River" weaves together the fascinating cultural and natural history of interior Alaska through the story of a field expedition conducted by 5 biologists in a 4000-square-mile, roadless area of interior Alaska. The expedition was ordered by the United States government following the signing into law of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, and was to help decide the fate of a vast area that would ultimately become the Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve. And yet this is a human story, related through the personal experiencesthe uncertainties, discoveries, accidents, and encounters with othersrecorded by this disparate (and at one point desperate) group of biolog...
Ageing, Gender and Sexuality focuses on the experiences of older lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) individuals, in order to analyse how ageing, gender and sexuality intersect to produce particular inequalities relating to resources, recognition and representation in later life. The book adopts a feminist socio-legal perspective to propose that these inequalities are informed by and play out in relation to temporal, spatial and regulatory contexts. Discussing topics such as ageing sexual subjectivities, ageing kinship formations, classed trajectories and anticipated care futures, this book provides a new perspective on older individuals in same-sex relationships, including those who choose not ...