viii, 240 pages ; 23 cm

"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, government policies and social inequalities. Global dimensions of intimate life are explored, including the impact of population policies on fertility in several nations; ethical dilemmas associated with reproductive technologies among different cultures; interdependencies between rich and poor nations through the globalization of domestic care; and transnational marriage strategies. This book will be indispensable for students across the social sciences interested in change in intimate relations."--Publisher's website

Includes bibliographical references (pages 193-229) and index

1. Traditional approaches to the family -- Late nineteenth-century sociological perspectives -- Engels : family, private property and the state -- The twentieth-century functional family -- Companionate marriage -- Community and kinship studies -- Constructions of race in family studies -- Feminism and families -- 2. Individualization, intimacy and family life -- Individualization and changing families -- Doing and displaying families -- 'Unconventional' family relationships -- Same-sex intimacies and families of choice -- Minority ethnic kinship ties -- 3. Parenting practices and values -- Changing ideas about parenthood -- Morality and motherhood -- Teenage mothers -- Traditional and new models of fatherhood -- Fatherhood after divorce -- Minority ethnic parenting -- Gay and lesbian parenting -- 4. The changing nature of childhood -- Past ideas about childhood -- Children's agency -- Children and divorced families -- Childhood, consumption and class -- Children, new media and the home -- The privatization of childhood

5. Families and ageing societies -- Changing dynamics of ageing and family life in western societies -- Older people and patterns of family support -- Gender differences among older people -- Same-sex relationships among older people -- Globalization, old age and traditional kinship customs -- 6. Globalization, migration and intimate relations -- Gendered migration patterns -- Globalization, migration and family care -- Marriage strategies and mobility -- Commercially negotiated marriage -- Sustaining cultural traditions in diasporic settings -- Internet dating and 'mail-order brides' -- 7. Families, fertility and populations -- Governments and family planning -- Romania's pro=natalist policy under Ceausescu -- India's preference for sons -- China's 'on-child' policy -- Demographic deficit in developed nations -- 8. Families and new reproductive technologies -- Assisted conception and relatedness -- Approaches to new reproductive technologies -- Donor insemination and the regulation of families -- Views on infertility treatment among the South Asian diasporas -- Donor technologies in the Muslim Middle East -- Commercial surrogacy in India -- 9. New directions : personal life, family and friendship -- The politics of family values -- Family diversity and personal life -- Friends and personal communities -- New intimacies -- Global and economic dimensions of intimacy and family

Self-Renewing 2017

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