7 | Families and Households: Part 4
The final part of the Family chapter looks at “Roles, responsibilities and relationships within the family” through the media of: • Domestic division of labour • Power relationships • Children and parents • Functionalist / Marxist / Feminist explanations of family roles • Demographic trends and changes As with previous chapters I can’t emphasise strongly […]
6 | Families and Households: Part 3
After the raw, enervating, excitement of Family Trends and the Role of Family in Society, the rollercoaster ride that is Family Life continues with the unalloyed joy that is Family Diversity. While some commentators (who shall remain nameless because I haven’t named them) have described family diversity as a “thrill-a-minute fun-fest filled with fantastic fripperies”, […]
5 | Families and Households: Part 2
This part of the family chapter examines the role of family in society through two different and opposing structural approaches: Functionalism / Neo-Functionalism and Marxism / Neo-Marxism. The content covered, in no particular order of significance, includes: • Family functions and orientations • The link between individuals and society • Family dysfunctions (the “Dark side […]
BBC “Analysis” Podcasts
Over the past 10 years BBC Radio 4’s Analysis series has created a range of podcasts “examining the ideas and forces which shape public policy in Britain and abroad, presented by distinguished writers, journalists and academics”. There are over 200 podcasts to trawl through, many of which won’t be of any interest or use to sociology […]
ATSS: Critical views of the family
The filing cabinet that just keeps on giving has revealed another of its little secrets in the form of an ATSS Teaching and Learning Support Pack on Critical Approaches to the Family (stuff like Radical Psychiatry, Marxism and Feminism). This pack takes the same format as previous packs on globalisation, deviance and research methods: general […]
Commitments to Cohabitation
When thinking about differences and similarities between marriage and cohabitation one thing that tends to get overlooked is that, in terms of people’s reasons for making these commitments, neither is homogeneous; just as there are many and varied reasons for deciding to get married, the same is largely true of decisions about whether to cohabit. […]
Neo-Functionalism: More Millennial Family Functions
Another dimension to Neo-Functionalist thinking about contemporary families that complements Swenson’s (2004) ideas about adults as providers of a stable family environment for primary socialisation is to look more-closely at what happens within family groups and to use these insights to explain how and why families play such pivotal structural roles. Horwitz (2005), for example, […]
GCSE AQA Sociology Revision Guides
I recently came across this interesting set of guides for the AQA Spec., written by Lydia Hiraide of The BRIT School. The guides are dated 2013 – and although I’m not sure how they might fit into the latest Specification, I’m guessing there’s going to be a lot here that’s still relevant. You can download […]
GCSE Revision Resources
While it’s probably fair to say that teacher-created GCSE revision resources are a bit thin on the ground (and take a bit of finding), there are useful resources “out there” if you’re prepared to do a lot of searching. To save you the time and trouble, here’s some I found earlier (the quality’s a bit […]
Sociology Factsheets: To Buy or DIY?
Like all good ideas, this one is simple but effective. Distil topic notes into key knowledge points, add illustrative examples and brief overviews of advantages and disadvantages, throw in some exam tips and short “test yourself” questions, call it a factsheet and sell it at a very reasonable price to teachers – which is exactly […]