For more than a decade, Carol Smart has been at the forefront of
debates about the sociology of the family. Yet she has become
frustrated by the fixation of many commentators with the supposed
decline of commitment, and even the decline of the possibility of
family life. In this exciting new book, she puts forward a new way
of understanding families and relationships.
Breaking with conventional wisdom, her book offers a fresh
conceptual approach to understanding personal life, which realigns
empirical research with theoretical analysis. She gives emphasis to
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,
Bauman and Giddens.
Instead, her approach prioritises the bonds between people, the
importance of memory and cultural heritage, the significance of
emotions (both positive and negative), how family secrets work and
change over time, and the underestimated importance of things such
as shared possessions or homes in the maintenance and memory of
relationships.
This ground-breaking text will be essential reading for anyone
who cares about the future of families and personal relationships,
and who wants to understand this most intimate area of social
life.
Inhoudsopgave
Acknowledgements.
Introduction.
1. A sociology of personal life.
2. The cultural turn in the sociology of family life and
living.
3. Emotions, love and the problem of commitment.
4. Connections and cultures of tradition.
5. Secrets and lies.
6. Families we live with.
7. Possessions, things and relationality.
8. Conclusion.
References.
Index
Over de auteur
Carol Smart is Professor of Sociology at the Morgan Centre for the Study of Relationships and Personal Life, School of Social Science, University of Manchester.
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