Unit 1. Family: Father, Mother and Me?

Learning outcomes:

After working effectively at this unit you will be able to:

 define the issue of “family” and correlated issues;

 get acquainted with a number of sociological perspectives on the problem of family;

 analyze various processes in terms of family;

 collect information on the topic using the method of

heuristic questions;

 ask for people's opinion and check your understanding of

their point of view in the process of conducting an interview;

S UB-UNIT 1.1. what constitutes family?

WARMING-UP:

 Task 1. The first issue suggested for discussion and sociological analysis is the issue of “family”. Work in groups: read the following statements about family. Do you agree with them? Does everyone in your group has the same opinion?

1) Family is a social group whose members are related by ancestry, marriage, or adoption and who live together, cooperate economically, and care for the young (James W.V.Zanden)

2) Family is a social group characterized by common residence (=place of living), economic cooperation, and reproduction (George Peter Murdock, American researcher);

3) Same-sex couples should be recognized as a family.

4) Family is two or more persons related by birth, marriage or adoption who reside in the same household (The Census Bureau);

5) The traditional family, in which the father works and the mother stays home to care for the children, the ideal family.

 Task 2. Read below three sociological perspectives on the problem of family and the ways to view it. Try to guess the meaning of the word “ZIP” choosing from the alternatives given after the text.

Perspective #1: Reviving the Traditional Family The problems of America's families ZIP 1 from pervasive permissiveness and the decline of the traditional family. Rising rates of illegitimacy, divorce, and single-parent families are at the root of many of the nation's problems. Society should ZIP 2 traditional values and traditional forms of family life -- not because they're traditional, but because they work. Public policy should reinforce values such as ZIP 3 sex to marriage, staying married for the sake of the kids, and encouraging mothers, when possible, to care for children -- especially young ones -- at home.

 Perspective #2: Promoting Parental Responsibility America's family problems can't be solved by returning to the 1950s. The most important value is parental ZIP 4. Society should insist that people who are considering starting a family -- whether they are single, married, or divorced, heterosexual or homosexual -- have children only when they are prepared emotionally and financially for the long-term project of caring for a child. More family planning programs are needed to prevent unplanned ZIP 5. At the same time, parents should be held accountable for their children's behavior and well-being.

Perspective #3: Acknowledging Society's Responsibility The chief problem with family life today is that ZIP 6 isn't something parents can manage on their own anymore. Working parents are busy and tired and too often just barely keeping their heads above water. Many families are in trouble because parents don't get much help in the form of publicly subsidized day care, health care or financial assistance. Everyone wants to be ensured that children get the care and assistance they need.

ZIP 1: a) stand apart b) stem (=come) c) arrive

ZIP 2: a) encourage b) forget c) scrutinize

ZIP 3: a) restricting b) promoting c) forbid (=not allow)

ZIP 4: a) cooperation b) responsibilities c) flexibility

ZIP 5: a) marriages b) relations c) pregnancies

ZIP 6: a) child-rearing b) controlling their children c) getting married

 Task 3. Get acquainted with the given perspectives in detail. Find two mistakes of the blocks given within them and correct them changing the places of those blocks.

THE PERSPECTIVES IN DETAIL
Perspective #1: Reviving the Traditional Family		Perspective #2: Promoting Parental Responsibility		Perspective #3: Acknowledging Society's Responsibility
What Should Be Done?
Encourage couples to maintain traditional families by making tax incentives to help mothers stay at home with small children. (A) Change no-fault divorce laws that decrease the value of marriage and harm children by encouraging couples to divorce rather than resolve their problems. (B) Limit sex education to teaching that sex outside of marriage is wrong. (C) Stop belittling the traditional role models of mother as homemaker and father as chief breadwinner and disciplinarian. (D) Restore the stigma that used to be associated with promiscuity and divorce. (E) Pass stricter laws to reduce violence and sex in the entertainment media. (F)		Improve and expand sex education and family planning programs. Unplanned pregnancies often lead to unwanted children. (G) Remove obstacles to abortion. Make the procedure readily available and publicly financed. (H) Make parents more responsible for their kids' misbehavior. (I) Change the divorce laws to put the interests of the children first. (J) Enact laws to make it clear that homosexual unions are not recognized as civil marriages. (K) Increase financial assistance to needy families to lift all children out of poverty. (L)		Provide families with a standard package of benefits, including subsidized child care, preschool programs, and health insurance. (M) Save millions of children from poverty by requiring employers to pay women the same wages men earn in comparable positions. (N) Expand parental leave policies and flexible work schedules so more parents can care for new babies or sick children. (O) Source:http://www.publicagenda.org/issues/ debate.cfm?issue_type=family

 Task 4. In the characteristics of Perspective 1:Reviving the Traditional Family deduce the meaning and use of the following words that may be new to you:

a) find the word meaning more or less the same as “stimulus”;

b) find the word combination that would mean “not in the socially approved union between individuals taken with some idea of permanence”;

c) find the word which corresponds to this definition “to make someone or something seem less important or not very good”;

d) find the word that is equivalent to “wage earner”, “daily-breader”;

e) find the word opposite to “marriage-bed”, “faith to the partner”;

 Task 5. In the characteristics of Perspective 2: Promoting Parental Responsibility and Perspective 3: Acknowledging Society's Responsibility find the words that may be translated as:

a) незапланированная беременность;

b) гражданский (не церковный) брак;

c) бедствующие семьи;

d) вырвать из бедности;

e) финансируемый из государственного (или муниципального) бюджета;

f) половое воспитание;

g) отпуск по уходу за ребенком;

 Task 6. Work in pairs. Using the chart below share your opinion on the most effective ways to solve various family problems.

I am sure (am not sure)		passing stricter laws in entertainment media		the most	effective	solution to reducing kids’ misbehaviour
I suppose (do not suppose)		making tax incentives to help mothers stay at home with small children		quite	reasonable	way to give parents a chance to take care of children and stay at work
		improving and expanding sex education and family planning programs.				way to fight child poverty
I think (do not think)	that	changing the divorce laws	is	rather	efficient	way to increase the value of marriage
		making parents more responsible for their kids' misbehavior				solution to family's financial problems
I believe (do not believe)		expanding parental leave policies and flexible work schedules		not very	useless	way to encourage couples to maintain traditional families
…		providing families with subsidized child care, preschool programs, and health insurance.				way to prevent mothers from having unwanted children

 Task 7. Discuss in groups your answers to the following questions:

1) What measures can be introduced to help mothers stay at home on parental leave with their children?

2) Do you support the idea that no-fault divorce laws decrease the value of marriage?

3) What role does sex education play in strengthening the family institute?

4) Do you back the idea of providing women with the same wages men earn in comparable positions?

5) What is your opinion on parental responsibility for their kids misbehaviour?

6) What are the stereotypes of the father’s and mother’s family roles in your country?

 Task 8. One of the most effective ways to collect a big amount of information on the topic is to use the method of heuristic questions, which was first introduced in Ancient Rome.

Each crossing of the lines gives you a new question. For example crossing 1-2 on the issue of the family gives you a question ‘who?’ + ‘what?’ “Who does what in a family? What are the roles and responsibilities of every family member?”

So, using the following scheme, generate as many questions as you can dealing with various aspects of the family life:

1	who?	subject
2	what?	object
3	why?	aim
4	where?	place
5	with what?	means
6	how?	method
7	when?	time

 Write down as many questions as you can. Compare them with those of your group-mates. What unusual interesting aspects of the issue of the family have you managed to touch upon?

SUB-UNIT 1.2. INterethnic families

Task 1. Here is a list of possible family features. Decide if they are characteristic of mono-racial (families with both parents and offspring of the same race) or interracial (where parents and offspring belong to different races) families. Explain your point of view:

	Interracial family	Mono-racial family	Both of them	None of them
1. These families are more flexible and may take various forms (for example, single-parents, homosexual families etc)
2. These families bring up children more confused about their ethnic identities.
3. It is more difficult for the children from these families to maintain their cultural identity.
4. Because of the “identity crisis” children may face hostility from various communities.
5. These families deal with wide varieties of cultural influences more often even in everyday family practices.

Read the following article to check your suppositions.

 Task 2. Scan the article and tick the sentences naming the problems of interracial families tackled (mentioned) there:

____ Some significant changes have taken place in terms of the issue “family”.

____ A new term “postmodern family” has appeared.

____ Some social programs have been designed to help single-parent families.

____ In our postmodern society we have no right to define “race” and “culture” as being pure.

____ Children from interracial families may face a number of problems.

Interethnic Families by Suki Ali

New students of sociology will soon become aware that 'the family' is an important area of study. The increasing diversity of family life in Britain is also important - especially since much of the popular discussion on family change looks at the structures of families and households.

Relationships within families are extremely important ways in which we learn about our gendered, cul­tural and ethnic identities. The study of interethnic families raises particularly interesting questions about how we under­stand the role of families in society, and the role they play in the production of contem­porary identities. By using the terms 'race' or 'ethnicity' in relation to families, we find our­selves in areas of debate which are central to much of the work by sociologists. What do we mean by these terms and how do they impact upon our everyday lives? What does it mean to be part of an 'interethnic' or 'inter­racial' family in contemporary Britain?

Changing family studies

The earlier functionalist approaches to the family by writers such as Talcott Parsons (1951), and studies of families in communi­ties such as those by Young and Wilmott (1962) have come under increasing scrutiny. Marxist writers, for example, saw the family as an important site for the reproduction of state ideologies, and feminist accounts critiqued 'the family' as a place for the exploitation of women and the reproduc­tion of gender inequality.

Into the 1970s, 'the family' was still largely referred to as if it were the traditional 'nuclear family' consisting of mum, dad and '2.2 children'. This image of the family remained dominant and anything that varied from it was seen as being in some way deviant. Throughout the 1980s, many studies of the

family began responding to the fact that these conventional models of family life were having a negative effect on those families which fell outside the traditional frame. Black writers in particular argued that the traditional nuclear family was typically depicted or imagined as a 'white' family, and that using such models automatically made problems out of fami­lies which had different kinds of structures.

Race and the adoption debate

Responding to changes in society, sociolo­gists are trying to look these days at more inclusive models of the family. The 'post­modern' family is more flexible than the traditional nuclear family. It takes many different forms, including single-parent fam­ilies, step families, lesbian and gay-parented families, multi-generational families, and also the range of ethnic groups that make up 'multicultural' Britain.

Sociologists working in the area of 'race' and ethnicity are interested in families because a central feature of family life is socialisation. During the 1980s there were many debates on racial identities and the family. One involved looking at transracial adoption — for example, a black or Asian child adopted by a white family.

During the 1980s it was argued that black children who were adopted by white fami­lies might grow up feeling confused about their ethnic identities. It was suggested that it was better for children to grow up in families of a similar 'racial' background, since the children, as a result, would have a better understanding of race and a better preparation for facing racism. There were concerted campaigns for 'same race' place­ments by some members of social services. This debate took place in the wider context of calls for more 'racial' pride and the maintenance of strong cultural identities for minority ethnic groups in Britain.

After the 1989 Children Act, 'same race' placements were targeted as they were seen as a barrier to children being offered perma­nent homes. Being in a family — regardless of ethnic background — was seen as being most important for the healthy develop­ment of children.

What can we learn about 'interethnic families' from these debates?

• First, it seems that families are still seen as the most important place for the social­isation of children.

• Second, there is an idea that one has to 'learn' a 'racial' identity, when most often what is actually referred to in these debates is the importance of culture and of learning about cultural histories.

• Third, such debates raise uncomfortable questions for those who are already in 'mixed' families. The implication is that perhaps these families are somehow 'wrong' and not good for social stability. Will children from these families grow up to be confused and, possibly, unstable members of society?