Summary
Contents
Subject index
Relevant, focused and accessible this book will provide students with an indispensible guide to the central concepts of family studies.
Family Practices
Family Practices
Definition
The concept of family practices is intended to direct attention to the ‘doing’ of family as an activity in contrast to a focus on family as a form or institution to which individuals belong. As such, it is a broad orientation rather than a firmly defined notion.
Discussion
The concept of ‘family practices’ has been developed by the family sociologist David H.J. Morgan (1996, 1999) to highlight how ‘family’ is not a static category or structure defined by residence, blood ties and the legal system. Rather, he says, because we live in a complex and fluid society, family has to be actively created by its members; family is something that individuals ‘do’ rather than something that people ‘are’. As a term, ‘family practices’ is ...
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