Abstract
It is a fact that in the onslaught of globalization and the ensuing consumer culture, the notions of a functional nuclear family are undergoing severe changes. Of primary concern are the larger transformations taking place in sexuality in the family, the formation and dissolution of families and households, and the evolving expectations within the individual’s personal relationships. It is within this late modern context that the edited volume under review develops an interest in family relationships beyond the domestic unit, and questions the emphasis on the nuclear family that was prevalent for a long time in family research. Thus, the volume lies at the intersection of ‘family as in conventional studies’ and ‘family as a grounded reality’ in the present-day world.
Traditionally ‘family’ has been looked at as the most fundamental unit of the social structure. The original discussions on family and marriage revolved around the idea of their institutional foundation in society, and their role in the socialization of children and the constitution of the social fabric. For generations, family as a social category has been used to provide a framework within which human beings are reproduced, children cared for and the elderly supported. The functionalist propositions on family, from Murdock to Parsons and after, have always emphasized the fact that the nuclear, heterosexual family was a universal social institution to the exclusion of other family forms. That family existed universally because it fulfilled the basic quadruple functions for society: the sexual, reproductive, economic and socialization functions. The notion of family has, therefore, been invariably locked up within an altruistic and monolithic image.
However, over the years, these ideas came under scrutiny, and the functionalists’ concept of a functional nuclear family came to be challenged in various academic circles. This volume seeks to decipher the changing contours of family by bringing together empirical evidence from the European context, and trying to weave together the emerging patterns of relations and dependencies in the family across generations and regions. In the process the book attempts to document the changing structures, functions and dynamics of family ties.
The present-day world has undergone mammoth changes, as has the place of the individual in society. In this age, the strength and legitimacy of authoritative norms of institutions such as religion and family, once very powerful, seem to be waning. A corresponding rise in exploring new forms of identity of individuals seems to be in place, with a subsequent decline in the capacity of social institutions to dictate people’s biographies. The relationship of individuals with their family is part of this crucial question, because the institution of family has always played a pivotal role in the development of societies.
The constructions of family, marriage, gender and sex in sociological discourse are caught within a multitude of discursive problems. The most basic issue is the continuing hold of the functionalist paradigm. Functionalists tend to overstate the relative influence of social structure on individual behaviour and understate the freedom of individuals to decide upon their own behaviour for themselves. Sociological studies in late modernity, therefore, are likely to deny that individuals are easily indoctrinated to accept functionalist norms and values, or for that matter, patriarchal values as suggested by feminists, or a ruling class ideology as suggested by Marxists. The diversity of family structures and of behaviour within families shows that functionalist, Marxist and feminist theories of the family in general appear to be over-deterministic.
The volume, thus, emerges as a critique of ‘modern family studies’, especially of functionalists, who overstate the extent of consensus in society and the significance of nuclear families relative to other family forms, and understate the widespread existence of asymmetrical, patriarchal relationships within nuclear families. It submits that in conditions of late modernity traditional processes of socialization, particularly that occurring in nuclear families, have become much weaker, thus allowing individuals far greater freedom in the construction of their own identities.
Alternatives to the traditional nuclear family have become more popular in recent times. In family life, the formerly dominant values of loyalty, duty, obedience and self-sacrifice are slowly being displaced by the standards of personal fulfilment, companionship, sexual gratification for spouse, egalitarianism and compatibility, at least among the upper classes in advanced industrial countries. The volume concentrates on the familial relationships which shape the construction of the self, identity, masculinity and femininity – characteristic features of late modernity. Hence, the chapters in the volume address choices, commitments and negotiations individuals make in their lives in the purview of extended familial connections. It reiterates the fact that the shift from the nuclear family to various forms of family interdependencies has not caused people to cease commitments to each other.
In order to precisely capture the complexities and networks of direct or indirect interdependence of persons sharing feelings of belonging and connectedness to families, the book employs the configurational approach. This emerged as part of relational sociology that proposed a shift from the egocentric perspective into one of interdependence that rearranges ensembles in which human beings are integrated. As a conceptual frame, configuration takes into account an aggregate of individuals of any size, from the smallest personal networks, social atoms so to speak, to humanity as a whole. The volume, thus, proposes to grasp some of the logics accounting for the complex set of interdependencies characterizing family relationships beyond the nuclear family. Characteristically, each chapter in the volume revolves around the notion of configuration as the principal frame of reference. The volume therefore makes a substantial contribution to the emerging configurational perspective on family.
The whole compilation is organized into four sections so as to study the family configuration from its quadruple dimensions. Section 1 is about ‘intergenerational care’, which basically addresses the issue of family solidarity and commitment. In this section, there are chapters that deal with the issue of kin relationships and their commitments in maintaining the relations through material and practical support in everyday life (Ch. 1:1); child care strategies, especially for working mothers (Ch. 1:2); and caring of the elderly, more particularly in a situation where women’s participation in the labour force has been increasing rapidly, thus involving gender implications (Ch. 1:3).
Section 2 of the volume, the largest of all with seven chapters, focuses on relationships and their meanings, which unfold as symbolic interactions within and across generations. The second chapter in this section, entitled ‘Togetherness and being together – Family configuration in the making’, authored by one of the editors of the volume, Riitta Jallinoja, requires special mention, as it appears to be illustrative in its approach of all chapters of the volume. In this chapter, one finds a brilliant blend of the concept of configuration with the empirical reality that combines theoretical soundness and methodological rigour. It analyses two models of familial configuration, one that consists of the elementary forms of relatedness, which determine the principal ways in which people are attached to each other and a second, that of social structures where the elementary forms of relatedness come into operation and from which the relational concepts are derived. In this way, the author illuminates to the readers the relations between the sense of togetherness and the experience of actual togetherness.
Section 3 explores the theme of ‘disruptions’ and the subsequent configurations that come into place in an individual’s life. It tackles turbulent situations of biographical disruptions such as divorce after having children (Ch. 3:1), or having to undergo psychotherapy (Ch. 3:3), or how ill-timed and unexpected events and non-normative transitions alter the dynamics of family configurations (Ch. 3:4). The chapters provide a systematic empirical gaze on these crisis situations in individuals’ lives, and examine the ‘significant others’ (Ch. 3:2) who become integral to the emerging familial configurations. The fourth dimension of the configuration that the volume attempts to unravel is the web of relationships that occurs when ‘others’ from the larger society interact with the members of the family, influencing the formation of newer and broader sets of configurations that go beyond the notion of a conventional family configuration. For instance, the first chapter of this section investigates the nature of ‘acquaintanceship’ with workmates and neighbours, and assesses its significance within wider webs of relationships. It argues that acquaintances are an important part of individuals’ social space.
In the final analysis, all the chapters in the volume convincingly argue that the level of the self and the marital dyad do not capture the overall dynamics of family relationships in this age of late modernity, as family interdependencies have become more complex and widespread. Therefore, there is a need to see extended kinship ties as integral to the everyday, proximate as well as distant, dependencies of familial relations, in which emotional and cognitive linkages exist among persons living in different households. The highlight of the volume is that most of the chapters employ a qualitative approach to empirical gaze. This seems to better capture the nuanced complexities of configurations, as they manifest themselves in families, in the age of late modernity.