Women,children and marriage in Swaziland

While sociologists have long theorized that marriage is an almost universal institution developed to create stable units for the rearing of children, data from interviews with 100 rural and 25 urban women in Swaziland in 1988-89 reveal that these assumptions reflect narrow ethnocentric views rather than the relationship between marriage and children which exists in Swaziland where there is a prevailing pattern of early childbearing and later marriage. Whereas half of all Swazi mothers aged 20-30 are unmarried, this proportion drops to a third by age 40 and to a fifth by age 50. It is popular to state that the reason that marriage is not a prerequisite for child-bearing is that a deterioration of morals has accompanied the erosion of traditional morals. However, a careful reading of early essays reveals that the practice is of long standing. In fact, not only is this a normal pattern in Swazi society, there are well understood rules for allocating the responsibility of children outside of marriage which are being strained by the spread of industrial capitalism. The customs which accompany premarital child-bearing include the father paying a compensation (5 cattle) to the mother's family for the birth, the father having the right to "buy" the child, and the traditional right of the king to forbid marriage to warriors. This system of premarital conception has resulted in a very high birthrate and has been fostered by the homestead system with its kinship networks and shared resources. A growing ambivalence to children can be seen in the fact that the marriage rituals which give a husband the right to his wife's sexuality rather than those which involve the paying of a price for the rights to the children are the most commonly performed. In addition, the old image of the natural father proudly asserting his rights to his children is rarely seen in modern Swaziland. The mother's family, from which the child can be claimed at any time up until puberty, tries to avoid investing heavily in a resource (the child) which may be snatched away. The fact that most mothers now assign the father's name to their children indicates their willingness to have the child appropriated. In the meantime, the women are expected to be the sole providers for their children.     

Intimate circuits: modernity,migration and marriage among post‐Soviet women in Turkey

The study of migration too often ignores the ways that labour migrants' emotional entanglements and complicated personal relationships factor into their experiences of being people on the move. In examining post‐Soviet migrant women's relationships with Turkish men and the ways these are regulated in Turkey, in this article I consider how intimate practices of marriage and performances of ‘love’ have emerged as key aspects of transnational mobility. These intimate practices both enable long‐term transnational circuits between post‐Soviet homelands and Turkey, and attest to the way global capitalism is redefining personal lives.     

Women and poverty: insights from individual consumption in Albania

This paper studies how a society with traditional gender norms and competitive marriage market conditions may favor unequal distribution of resources within households and a consequent increase in female poverty. We propose a method to estimate individual consumption from household expenditure data. After estimating individual consumption, we apply a fuzzy approach for poverty analysis. Compared to standard poverty measures, the approach is less sensitive to changes in the distribution of consumption around the poverty line, generated when accounting for unequal distribution of household resources. The approach, applied to the analysis of individual poverty in Albania, revealed considerable intrahousehold inequality that specifically affects women and is correlated with imbalances in the sex ratio induced by past migrations. This leads to an expected general increase in poverty rates, mainly driven by a previously unperceived issue, female poverty, which emerges as an aspect of concern to consider in future anti-poverty policies.     

Social work, modernity and post modernity

In this article we argue that current reform proposals coming from Robert Pinker and others are challenging the universalist premises of generic social work. Pinker et al. argue that social work should, for the sake of efficiency and performance, be a connected set of specialist activities. This ‘determinate dispersal’ which we recognise as falling within the remit of postmodern strategies, we contrast with the far more libertarian ideas of the noted post-modern theorist J.F. Lyotard. Thus we site the political and cultural meanings of Pinker's ideas between generic social work which upholds ideas of universal ethical values and universal provision, and those of Lyotard whose anti-foundationalism proposes a radically heterogeneous society with no central value-structure. We express our concern that the ‘new specialist’ remit may allow too much power to the social worker. Thus we have considerable sympathy for Lyotard's call for a radical anonistics – a field wherein the inequalities of power between say, a worker and her client, to some extent can be redressed.     

Women and Migration in Albania: A View from the Village

Since the fall of communism in the early 1990s, Albania has experienced migrations of epic proportions: 17 years later almost one in four Albanians has emigrated and lives abroad, primarily in Greece and Italy. Albanian emigration has by and large represented a typically male‐dominated model, whereby men have “led the way” and women have followed as family members. Despite the considerable participation of Albanian women in this migration, their roles and experiences remain under‐researched. Based on in‐depth interviews with rural migrant women and their families, as well as additional ethnographic material collected from 2004 to 2006 in Albania and Greece, this paper aims to fill this knowledge gap. The findings demonstrate the various ways in which Albanian rural women participate in the migratory process. They are often the most important pillar for supporting the family migration strategy through their productive and reproductive labour when remaining behind. They are also closely involved in decision‐making about the migration of other family members. Furthermore, they have been among the pioneers of the early 1990s migration themselves, including taking the long and risky journeys across the mountains to Greece. Overall, their contribution to the migrant household is beyond their presumed reproductive role and includes a strong economic component. While some “traditional” norms and values persist and are reinforced during migration, change does take place, albeit at a slow and gradual pace. However, for the emancipatory benefits women could accrue through migration to be enhanced, immigration policies need adjusting to address their position as fully autonomous economic and social actors, thus reducing their dependency on male “bread‐winners.” Albanian women’s particular migratory experiences, combined with their increasing numbers as migrants, make a compelling case for further attention from researchers and policymakers.     

Material vs. spiritual—A novel economics perspective on marriage and divorce

By dividing household-produced commodities into material and spiritual goods, and incorporating Maslow's psychological theory of motivation into this economic framework, I explore why individuals with different preferences choose different mates, and how the drive to enter marriage has changed as society becomes more developed. I then study the optimal effort for individuals to devote to marriage. I argue that divorce is mainly caused by the reduction of effort that couples devote to marriage, which might be a rational decision in response to changes in preferences, household productivity, and the opportunity cost of effort.     

Unemployment,marriage, and cohabitation in France

This paper examines the impact of insecure professional status on union formation using the 1994 French Family and Fertility Survey. We show that, for both women and men, the first job generally comes before the first union. In this framework, we consider how being unemployed or having an insecure job delays couple formation and worsens the quality of the potential match. Studying the couple’s investments (marriage, children) and the duration of the couple tests the quality of this match. The results emphasize that unemployment is associated with insecurity in both the professional and personal realms.     

Status inequality and stress in marriage.

Emotional stresses that are experienced in marriage are traced to differences in spouses' status origins. Linking status differences to such stress are a number of intervening conditions. People to whom status advancement is important and who have married mates of lower status are apt to have a sense of loss that leads, in turn, to a disruptions of reciprocity, expressiveness, affection and value sharing in marital exchange. Such disruptions then act as immediate antecedents to emotional stress. It is through this process that the status order of the larger society can reach out to have a deleterious influence on the emotional states arising out of marital transactions.     

Conjugal intimacy,gender and modernity in contemporary China

The new generation of modernity theorists have forecast the democratization of gender relations within intimate relationships in late‐modern times. Chinese society has undergone rapid and dramatic changes in its unique trajectory of political, social and economic reform. Using China as an example of a region which has been largely ignored in contemporary social theory, this article enters the debate to contest the extent to which conjugal relationships are democratized in line with modernity. We further test the assertion that modern marriages are characterized by increased self‐disclosure and communication between partners. Data from a national survey on Chinese families is analysed in relation to the level of self‐disclosure between husbands and wives; gender division of housework; household decision‐making; and home ownership. We highlight the impact of gender, cohort and location (urban, rural or migrant) on experiences of modernity and draw attention to the material, social and cultural factors which continue to shape conjugal relations in contemporary Chinese society. Based on our findings, we contest the argument that disclosing intimacy between intimate partners is a defining characteristic of modern relationships, and suggest that other social factors may condition degrees of self‐disclosure in marriage. Similarly, we question the extent to which heterosexual conjugal equality is attained: the cultural practices and values of patrilineal family organization, together with material circumstances, continue to influence marital relations in China.     

Alternatives in intimacy,marriage, and family lifestyles

This study investigated a sample of southern Black students' willingness to engage in 16 alternative intimacy, marriage, and family forms and examined the relation between demographic, familial, and social psychological variables and alternative lifestyles chosen. Data were obtained from a random sample of 230 Black students of marriageable age. In general, the subjects expressed relatively less willingness to experiment with the nontraditional lifestyles compared to conventional family forms; but theoretically relevant correlates of their predisposition were different for each sex. Year in college, major areas, parental love, family income, parental authority, and parental permissiveness with regard to dating relationships were significantly related to females' willingness, while residence and father's education were related to males' willingness to engage in alternative lifestyles. Authors' Note: This is a revised article originally presented at the annual meeting of the Southern Sociological Society, Knoxville, TE, March 1980. The authors wish to thank Noel A. Cazenave and Robert Whitehurst for constructive criticism. Analysis of the article was made possible, in part, by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation.     

Value,security and temporality in Nietzsche's critique of modernity

A certain pathos of temporality is at the core of Nietzsche's critique of reason, and it is this pathos that motivates his questioning of the Western discourse of values and of valuation. The well‐rehearsed Nietzschean thesis about the decline of values in modernity – nihilism as a kind of character fault of the modern personality – builds in effect less upon the values themselves (whatever these might be specified as) than upon a certain evolution in the human subject. An evolution in the subjectivity that has turned humans around from what Giddens (perhaps misleadingly) called ontological security towards their evolving capacity to navigate an unknown future and negotiate the values that flow from it. This article tries to demonstrate how Nietzsche's notion of modern subjectivity is in this sense inseparable from our negotiation of values over time; inseparable, in other words, from a certain axiology of time. Critically, it is not nihilism that is Nietzsche's primary concern – as so many read him – but rather his notion that values are inhabited by their own contingency: namely, the very possibility of their own exhaustion. For Nietzsche, the critique of morality is a particular case of his critique of values. All evaluation, all practices of conceptualizing, determining and applying values fits into the kind of genealogy Nietzsche carries out on morality. For Nietzsche there is an inseparable link between the supposed essence of value and the temporal field in which their rise or decline is experienced, and bemoaned.     

Returns vs. Endowments in the Earnings Attainment Process for Metropolitan and Nonmetropolitan Men and Women1

Abstract Three explanations typically are offered for differences in earnings: (1) individuals have different levels of human capital and hold different jobs (endowments differ), (2) rewards to human capital and job characteristics differ (returns differ), and (3) some combination of differences in endowments and returns explain variations in earnings. We argue that the structure of labor markets in nonmetropolitan (nonmetro) areas differs from that in metropolitan (metro) areas such that returns, as well as endowments, vary. These variations in returns favor metropolitan workers, explaining the predominant portion of the metro/nonmetro earnings gap. We examine the earnings differences for metro and nonmetro men and women in both 1977 and 1987, showing that returns outweigh endowments in explaining that gap for both men and women, although their importance decreases over the ten-year period. Research to improve our understanding of how differences in labor market structure produce differential returns has begun and may yield yet another avenue for action for policymakers interested in reducing metro/nonmetro inequalities.     

Women from the Middle East and North Africa in Europe: understanding their marriage and family dynamics

The aim of this article is to assist the understanding of social workers in Europe of marriage and family dynamics among women from Middle East and North African countries who have moved to Europe. The focus of this article is on husband selection processes and family dynamics after marriage in Egypt, which is used as a case study reflecting culture and norms surrounding marriage in this region. This article reports on the findings of doctoral studies which examined marriage patterns and family dynamics in North Africa and in particular in Egypt where more in-depth data were available. The authors reflect issues surrounding values and process of marriage not only in terms of the implications for practice with social work clients or service users, but also in relation to the potential of women from this region who may join the social care workforce.     

Gender roles,marriage, and residential independence

This article examines the effects of gender role attitudes on leaving home for marriage and for unmarried independence among young men and women in the United States in the 1980s. The choice to leave home for unmarried independence is associated with two major changes in family relationships: the shift in parent-child interaction from a traditional emphasis on children's obedience toward a greater stress on independence, and the shift toward more egalitarian definitions of gender roles in both work and family spheres. We ask the following: What is the effect of holding more modern gender role attitudes on gender differences in leaving home for marriage? Does holding more modern gender role attitudes influence patterns of leaving home for marriage and for unmarried independence differently for men and women? We examine these questions with data from sophomores in the High School and Beyond Survey.     

Recursive politics: prevention,modernity and social systems

The aim of this paper is to connect the recent interest in prevention to recent developments in social theory. It begins by recovering some of prevention's essential features from the realm of common sense, showing that what is taken to be the common sense of prevention is emblematic of modernity. For prevention is built on scientific understandings of cause and effect and the possibility of prediction; on a capacity for controlled intervention by government in social life; on a universal value base; on the authority of professional expertise; on rational, calculating, individual social subjects. As this order develops and changes, many of its constituent elements begin to be threatened by social processes which it has itself set in train. Prevention is affected by (and implicated in) these changes, too. But far from being eclipsed by them it becomes more prominent. Drawing on systems theory, the paper argues that prevention meets the essential purpose of boundary maintenance by which the functioning of social systems is sustained. For reasons both external and internal to welfare agencies, including an increased burden of social risk and increasing organisational complexity, this need to mark and maintain system boundaries is ever more pressing. At the same time, at least part of the problem of the fragility of boundaries is attributable to attempts to maintain them. It is for this reason that preventive policy making can be described as recursive, or self-propelling. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Ultimate concerns in late modernity: Archer,Bourdieu and reflexivity

Through a critique of Margaret Archer's theory of reflexivity, this paper explores the theoretical contribution of a Bourdieusian sociology of the subject for understanding social change. Archer's theory of reflexivity holds that conscious ‘internal conversations’ are the motor of society, central both to human subjectivity and to the ‘reflexive imperative’ of late modernity. This is established through critiques of Bourdieu, who is held to erase creativity and meaningful personal investments from subjectivity, and late modernity is depicted as a time when a ‘situational logic of opportunity’ renders embodied dispositions and the reproduction of symbolic advantages obsolete. Maintaining Archer's focus on ‘ultimate concerns’ in a context of social change, this paper argues that her theory of reflexivity is established through a narrow misreading and rejection of Bourdieu's work, which ultimately creates problems for her own approach. Archer's rejection of any pre‐reflexive dimensions to subjectivity and social action leaves her unable to sociologically explain the genesis of ‘ultimate concerns’, and creates an empirically dubious narrative of the consequences of social change. Through a focus on Archer's concept of ‘fractured reflexivity’, the paper explores the theoretical necessity of habitus and illusio for understanding the social changes that Archer is grappling with. In late modernity, reflexivity is valorized just as the conditions for its successful operation are increasingly foreclosed, creating ‘fractured reflexivity’ emblematic of the complex contemporary interaction between habitus, illusio, and accelerating social change.     

Money, power and inequality within marriage

The growing body of research on the intra-household economy suggests that in couple households there are significant associations between control over household finances and more general power within the household. However, most earlier research has been based on relatively small samples. Here a major new British data set, produced by the Social Change and Economic Life Initiative, is used to examine the relations between money, power and inequality within marriage. Six different systems of financial allocation are identified. The results suggest that even when couples nominally pool their money, in practice either husband or wife is likely to control the pool. In only one fifth of couples was the pool jointly controlled, but these households were characterised by the highest levels of equality between husband and wife in terms of decision making, experience of deprivation and access to personal spending money. Findings from the study indicate a complex pattern of relationships between household income level, household allocative system and gender. Female control of finances, though it was associated with greater decision-making power for women, did not protect them against financial deprivation; however, male control of finances, especially when it took the form of the housekeeping allowance, did serve to protect the financial interests of men in comparison with women. Gender inequality was least in households with joint control of pooled money and greatest either in low income households or in higher income households with male control of finances.