Description:
This book is a vital new resource in the sociological study of family life in the 21st century. Chapters explore a range of family and intimate life experiences, such as personal choices about reproduction and how life choices and family forms are mediated by location, race, ethnicity, sexuality, gender, income, and government policy.
Review Quotes:
'This book is unique in being the first of its kind to use disruptive ambiguity to fuel critical thinking of the normative understandings of family and life trajectories. It achieves this by challenging the inertia of embedded cultures and policies which still frame reality for non-normative families - a triumph for the creation of an authentic discursive place for societal progress'.
Professor Catherine Hayes, University of Sunderland, UK
'I would like to endorse this volume, which offers readers engagement with innovative work - both in terms of topic and/or methodology - in the field of family sociology. The book has an international appeal and both the editors and contributors are acknowledged experts in this field. The book aims to disrupt normative or expected accounts of family and the life course and - following the recent death of David HJ Morgan - it is encouraging to see that the volume intends to extend and rethink Morgan's work on family practices. I endorse and very much look forward to reading this publication'.
Dr Stephen Hicks, University of Manchester, member of the Morgan Centre for Research into Everyday Lives
'An important and timely collection taking forward scholarship in the field of family sociology. This volume draws on a range of empirical research projects investigating many hitherto under-researched life stages and family formations - methodologically innovative and theoretically ambitious, it will be of interest to researchers as well as practitioners working beyond the academy'.
Dr Charlotte Faircloth, Thomas Coram Research Unit, UCL Social Research Institute