Jane Ribbens McCarthy - Key Concepts in Family Studies

Key Concepts in Childhood Studies
Allison James and Adrian James

Key Concepts in Community Studies
Tony Blackshaw

Key Concepts in Social Gerontology
Judith Phillips, Kristine Arjouch and Sarah Hillcoat-Nalltamby

Key Concepts in Early Childhood Education and Care (Second Edition)
Cathy Nutbrown

JANE RIBBENS McCARTHY and
ROSALIND EDWARDS

Jane Ribbens McCarthy and Rosalind Edwards 2011

First published 2011

Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form, or by any means, only with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction, in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside those terms should be sent to the publishers.

SAGE Publications Ltd
1 Olivers Yard
55 City Road
London EC1Y 1SP

SAGE Publications Inc.
2455 Teller Road
Thousand Oaks, California 91320

SAGE Publications India Pvt Ltd
B 1/I 1 Mohan Cooperative Industrial Area
Mathura Road, Post Bag 7
New Delhi 110 044

SAGE Publications Asia-Pacific Pte Ltd
33 Pekin Street #02-01
Far East Square
Singapore 048763

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

ISBN 9781-412920056
ISBN 9781-412920063 (pbk)

Typeset by C&M Digitals (P) Ltd, Chennai, India
Printed by CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham, Wiltshire
Printed on paper from sustainable resources

This collection of key concepts proved a major undertaking and commitment for us, and we had assistance along the way. In particular we would like to thank Fiona Harris, who used her excellent skills as an editor to help us take in hand what was, at the time, an unwieldy mass of notes. In addition to our own appreciation, our readers owe her gratitude as well! Catherine Ribbens also made some of the administrative tasks associated with organizing the manuscript easier for us. Several colleagues were kind enough to respond to our ideas and read some of the concept entries, generously giving us the benefit of their expert knowledge in the field. They include Anne Barlow, Graham Crow, Megan Doolittle, Simon Duncan, Janet Fink, Frank Furstenberg, Harry Goulbourne, Heather Montgomery, David Morgan, John Oates, Georgia Philip, Mabelle Victoria, Jeffrey Weeks and Margie Wetherell. Finally, we would like to thank Chris Rojek and Jai Seaman of Sage for bearing with us.

Family studies is a broad and fascinating area. In this book, we set out to offer what we hope is a thoughtful overview of the key concepts through which family lives may be explored, and to provide clear and even-handed signposts to the main debates at stake in many of these concepts, and associated readings. As an area of academic interest, however, family studies is not easy to define, not least because the core term family has become a matter of considerable controversy and dispute.

Although the word itself continues to be widely evident and generally unquestioned in everyday lives as well as in political debates and professional practices, researchers may ponder how to use it, or whether to use it at all. Many academics have grown wary of using the signifier the family as this draws on stereotypes that fail to take account of, and marginalize, the realities of diverse family lives that do not fit the implicit model in the family, of a heterosexual two-parent nuclear family with breadwinning husband and father and home-making wife and mother. There are a variety of responses to these dilemmas within family studies.

As an area of scholarship, family studies is more fully recognized and academically organized in the USA than many other countries, and major overview textbooks are often authored from there (such as Boss et al., 2009; Coleman and Ganong, 2004; Collins and Coltrane, 2001; Lloyd et al., 2009). This is not to say that the field of family studies is not recognized as a discipline in its own right in other countries. While this recognition may be more or less explicit, academics in societies around the world produce important work relevant to the field, although there may be some associated differences of emphasis.