We need some data on current changes in the family, and this is supplied by the study "Social Focus on Families" which was carried out by the O.N.S. (Office for National Statistics) in 1997. We will be briefly evaluating this data in terms of how good the methodology that produced it was. "Social Focus on Families" is good because it gives you easily memorable figures and trends about

o The numbers of marriages (declining: marriage is currently very unpopular!)

o Single Parent Families (dramatically increasing. We will do quite a lot on S.P.F.s, as it is a topical and fruitful area. We will need to note that the majority of SPFs are not teenage mothers, but working divorcees. The majority of single parents are women - why? We will also need to look at the possible causes of the increase. And we will need to reconsider what the different sociological perspectives would say about SPFs.

o Children born outside marriage (illegitimacy): increasing. Again, we will consider why, and what different theoretical perspectives would say.

o Divorce. Again, increasing. What are the causes? What would be the views of Functionalists, Marxists, Feminists, and the New Right? What might Postmodernists say?

The beautiful thing about "Social Focus on Families" (as you will see from your handout!) is how it relates to so many different areas of this module on Families & Households.

One useful hint is to consider how the feminisation of the workplace (working women) has caused many of the above changes.

Another is to consider Giddens' theory about pure relationships becoming the norm as a result of detraditionalisation. Basically, this means that as tradition declines and people are able to make their own choices, there are fewer, if any, external forces holding relationships together. The only thing holding couples together now is their commitment to the relationship itself, rather than the pressures of economics, religion, community, extended family, etc. What people increasingly want is the relationship that is right for them; not one that they are forced to stay in because of social pressures. This will obviously have a big impact on rates of marriage, divorce, illegitimacy, second marriages, childbearing, cohabitation, etc.

This relates closely to another debate about family diversity. Some people argue that the norm in Britain is the "cereal packet family" - the "ideal" family of mum, dad, and two children that is presented to us through advertising. Functionalists and the New Right would be in favour of this type of family, although Marxists and Feminists would argue that it is an ideological stereotype given to us in order to control us, with little basis in reality.

Rapoport et al claimed to find "five dimensions of family diversity" - five ways in which families could be different, leading to a wide variety of different family types. Against this, Robert Chester argues that as most of us spend most of our lives in nuclear families (they may be step-families, or adoptive, or gay/lesbian, or ethnic minority, but they are still nuclear!) then we really only have the neo-conventional family. Diana Gittins argues that we now have "family plurality", which means that there is a wide variety of different family types which give us a choice of lifestyles. Going further down this route, Postmodernists claim that absolute meaning has collapsed in social life. There are no families, just "family practices", which people engage in. (Cheal) Judith Stacey claimed that America was characterised by a "postmodern family" in which roles were open, fluid, and contested. In the UK, Bernardes argues that we should focus on "life courses" (i.e. how we change and develop as we are confronted with issues such as growing up, leaving home, living with partners, having children, etc) rather than the fixed concept of "The Family".

A further debate, which often forms the basis for an exam question, is whether the family is in decline. What does the evidence (again, you can use "Social Focus on Families"!) say? Functionalists and the New Right would probably agree that the family is in decline. For them, the family means the dual-parent nuclear family. Other sociologists, however (Marxists, Feminists and Postmodernists) would probably say that it was in a process of rapid change, and celebrate the extra freedoms this gives family members.

The material you need in Sociology in Focus for this section is on p. 251 - 257, and also p. 265 -270.

You could start with a (light hearted? look at your own beliefs. How would the different sociological perspectives view them?:-