Title:
Families : a social class perspective / Shirley A. Hill.
Author:
Hill, Shirley A. (Shirley Ann), 1947-
Publication Information:
Los Angeles : SAGE/Pine Forge Press, ©2012.
Call Number:
HQ503 .H55 2012
Abstract:
"It focuses on the impact of economic systems and social class on the organization of family life. Because the most vital function of the family is the survival of its members, the author gives primacy to the economic system in structuring the broad parameters of family life; that is, the economy shapes the prospects families have for earning a decent living by determining the location, nature, and pay associated with work. The author does not assign families a passive role in this process, but rather argues that from early hunting and gathering societies to contemporary societies the organization of family life is enhanced when understood in the context of economic forces. The power of economic forces to transform families is evident in the fact that most family scholars situate the study of Western families within the context of the industrial economy that began to emerge in the 1700s, noting how it gradually separated family life from work, fostered massive patterns of immigration and urbanization, led to modernization, created new specialized institutions and professions, and shaped the marital, family, and gender ideologies. The rise of industrial economy also resulted in the social class stratification system which continues to exist in capitalist societies, although it has taken different contours with the transition from industrial production to an economy based on information and services. This new post-industrial economy has been a major factor in drawing women into the labor force, creating greater class polarization inequality, and influencing patterns of marriage and childbearing"-- Provided by publisher.
ISBN:
9781412998017
Series:
Contemporary family perspectives
Contemporary family perspectives.
Physical Description:
xxxiii, 149 pages ; 23 cm.
General Note:
Machine generated contents note: Introduction: Family Studies and Social Inequalities Chapter One: The Evolution of Families and MarriagesChapter Two: Theorizing Social Inequalities Chapter Three: Elite and Upper-Class Families Chapter Four: Middle-Class Families: Stability and ChangeChapter Five: Economically-Marginal Families: Living on the EdgeChapter Six: Families in Global Economic Context.
Contents:
Introduction : Family studies and social inequalities ; Understanding families in social context ; Social inequality: the seeds of discontent ; The revolutions of the 1960s and 1970s ; Making social class visible ; Defining social class ; Brief overview of chapters -- 1. The evolution of families and marriages : Families and marriage: a brief history ; Early hunting and gathering societies ; Settled agricultural societies: the rise of social inequalities ; Transformations in families and marriages ; Institutionalizing inequalities: gender and race ; Social inequalities in colonial America ; Industrialization and the modern family ; The sociological study of families ; The modern isolated nuclear family ; Middle-class America: realities, myths, and transitions ; The post-industrial economy and growing class inequality -- 2. Theorizing social inequalities : Structural functionalism ; Symbolic interactionism ; Conflict theory ; Theorizing gender inequality ; Theorizing race and ethnicity ; Bringing social class back in -- 3. Elite and upper-class families : Defining the upper class ; Economic elites: historic origins ; Family life in the upper class ; Marital and gender relations ; Socializing children -- 4. Middle-class families: stability and change : Origins of the middle class ; The modern middle-class family ; Postmodern middle-class families ; Renegotiating family work ; Balancing work and family: beyond the housework dilemma ; Having and rearing children ; Gender and racial socialization ; The decline of the middle class -- 5. Economically marginal families: living on the edge : Who are the economically marginal? ; Explaining poverty ; The marriage decline ; Strained gender relations ; Having and rearing children ; Life in single-mother families ; The well-being of children in single-parent families ; Social policy and the poor ; Is marriage the answer? -- 6. Families in global economic context : Theorizing global inequalities ; Race and ethnicity in global perspective ; Families across the globe ; The persistence of economic and social class inequality.
Personal Author:
