Visions in monochrome: families, marriage and the individualization thesis

This paper takes issue with the way in which the individualization thesis--in which it is assumed that close relationships have become tenuous and fragile--has become so dominant in 'new' sociological theorizing about family life. Although others have criticized this thesis, in this paper the main criticism derives from empirical research findings carried out with members of transnational families living in Britain whose values and practices do not fit easily with ideas of individualization. It is argued that we need a much more complex and less linear notion of how families change across generations and in time.     

The Imagination and Social Life

Sociology gives almost no consideration to the imagination. Yet, as this study seeks to demonstrate, the imagination plays an important role in social life. This article examines the question of how the imagination enters into ongoing interpersonal relations, taking as a case study cross-national couples and their discussions about where to live. Findings from semi-structured interviews with thirty-seven individuals in cross-national relationships suggest that the imagination enters into the lives of couples in four ways: imaginings suggest to partners where they would like to live; partners use the imagination as a tool to access and advance a preference, either together or individually; partners frame the desires of the other as fantasy as a way of countering these desires; and lastly, spouses tolerate an undesirable situation by engaging in escapist fantasies. Finally, this study suggests that the imagination permeates our decision-making, routinely enters our thoughts, is a domain in which individuals immerse themselves regularly, and, in the form of collective imaginings, can inspire social change.     

Out-of-Home Placement of Children and Economic Factors: An Empirical Analysis

In this paper, we use data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) to estimate the effects of income, maternal employment, family structure, and public policies on several measures of childrens living arrangements. We use both linear probability models and discrete-time event history models to explore the effects of these factors on: (1) the probability that a child is living out-of-home in a given year; (2) the probability that a child is removed from home in a given year, conditional on the child living at home in the previous year; (3) the probability that a child is removed from home for the first time; (4) the probability that a child is reunified with his/her biological parent(s) given that the child was living out-of-home in the previous year. We also analyze whether these estimates differ by types of out-of-home placements. Our results suggest that children from lower-income, single-mother, and mother–partner families are considerably more likely both to be living out-of-home and to be removed from home. A change in family structure also tends to place a child at higher risk of an out-of-home living arrangement, unless this transition functions to bring a childs father back into the household. Maternal work appears to increase the probability that a child lives at home. Additionally, once a removal has taken place, we do not find a relationship between income and the probability of a family reunification, but we do find that single-mother and mother–partner families are less likely to reunify. Finally, our analyses provide some evidence that welfare benefit levels are negatively related to out-of-home placements.Funding for this project was provided the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development through grant number 5 F32 HD044 302-02. We are grateful to Shoshana Grossbard-Shechtman, Jennifer Hill, Sanders Korenman, Leonard Lopoo, Katherine Magnuson, and Christina Paxson for their excellent comments and advice.JEL Classification: D10, I30, J13     

西周时期民间家庭教育内容管窥——以《诗经·国风》的探析为例

从家庭教育角度探析《诗经》的民歌部分 ,也是其精华部分的《国风》 ,其内容主要有自然、生活常识 ,生产、生活技能 ,德行、修身之道和崇拜、祭祀之理等几个方面。由于《诗经》诞生的特定社会背景以及作为教育内容的经典性 ,从这些内容中可大致看出西周时期民间家庭教育内容的基本面貌 ,也可以此为起点 ,静观奴隶社会和封建社会民间家庭教育内容的演变和发展 ,为现代家庭教育的内容选择提供有益的借鉴和启示     

论计划生育“三结合”模式的科学性

计划生育“三结合”由吉林省率先提出近十年,并已被国家充分肯定。十年来的实践已证实了计划生育“三结合”的正确与可行,尚缺少理论上的深入研究,经在国家计生委立项的“计划生育三结合之路研究”的软课题中找到了计划生育三结合提出的理论依据,进一步论证了计划生育三结合的科学性。     

儿童和青少年问题行为的家庭治疗

儿童和青少年的问题行为最好采取家庭治疗的方法。"家庭图谱"、"重新架构"、"悖论治疗"、个体心理治疗和家庭治疗相结合是解决儿童和青少年问题行为的重要方法;我国开展家庭治疗应该注意:积极向广大家长宣传家庭治疗的意义;大力培养我们的家庭治疗师队伍;家庭治疗应该重视多元文化的影响。     

也谈新历史小说

新历史小说摒弃了阶级斗争学说、社会地位决定论、经济决定论观点,以新的历史观念、新的历史意识解读历史,以家族史代替"正史",着重表现了民间文化、民族文化及人性、欲望的冲突在历史斗争中的作用,完成了"一切历史都是阶级斗争史"到"一切历史都是欲望的历史"的颠覆,将历史主观化、个人化。     

分财异居:两汉豪族之家社会生活的基本形态

豪族之家,指贵族、官僚和富豪之家。这种家庭往往是“门宗广大,姻亲众多”,但是,同居共财的大家族生活并不是这些豪族之家在社会生活中的基本形态,东汉以后所谓“推财让弟”、“推财兄子”、“推财弟子”的记载比比皆是。正说明分财异居现象之普遍,真正同居共财者还是十分罕见的。     

Gender and work orientations in conditions of job insecurity

This paper explores women's and men's work orientations in conditions of job insecurity, arguing that it is time to move beyond essentalist conceptions of work orientations and central life interests in order to understand the significance of paid work in people's lives. Data from a qualitative study are presented which show that the significance of paid work and the priority given to home and work are affected by experiences of job insecurity, changing domestic circumstances and stage in the life cycle and that this is the case for both women and men. Conversely, the significance of paid work can affect how job insecurity is experienced and its impact on individuals and their families. The assumption that men's work orientations are homogeneous and that work is their central life interest is not supported by the findings presented here and it is argued that the significance of work in men's and women's lives is more variable than has hitherto been recognized. To capture this variability it is time to move away from the acrimony of the debate over women's work orientations and notions of a central life interest which underpin it.     

Women and class structure in contemporary Japan

The main purpose of this study is to examine how to determine the class position of women, especially married women, in Japan. This study examines three different approaches to conceptualizing women's position in the class structure: the conventional approach, the individual approach, and the dominance approach. Since 1975, the overall rate of female labour force participation in Japan has increased, and given this growth, particularly of employees working outside home, I discuss whether the increased entry of women, particularly married women, into the labour market challenges the conventional way of assigning class positions to women by simply deriving them from their husband's class positions. The data set used in this study is derived from the 1995 Japanese Social Stratification and Mobility Survey. An examination of class distributions suggests that the pictures of macro-class structure provided by the conventional approach and the dominance approach show very little difference. Married women who belong to the female-dominant family still form a very small minority of all married women in the society. Furthermore, the male-dominant family shows the greatest stability over the life course whereas the female-dominant family, where the wife experiences withdrawal from the labour market, is least stable. The increasing number of married women in the labour market, thus, has not yet become a major threat to the conventional way of assigning women to a class position in contemporary Japan. Women, even among those working on a full-time basis, perceive their position in the stratification system using not only their own work, but also their husband's. In contrast, men's perception is determined by their own education and employment, not by their wives'. This asymmetry in the effect of the husband's class and of the wife's class on class identification is related not only to gender inequality within the labour market but also to the division of labour by gender within the household.