The anti-social family /
"Haven in a heartless world or site of oppression and inequality? Such claims answer each other endlessly as the state and prospects of the family are debated. The end of the family is in sight, it is often said, and from the European Parliament to the heartlands of the Moral Majority the guard...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Other Authors: | , |
| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
London :
NLB,
1982
London : 1982 London : 1982 |
| Subjects: |
| Summary: | "Haven in a heartless world or site of oppression and inequality? Such claims answer each other endlessly as the state and prospects of the family are debated. The end of the family is in sight, it is often said, and from the European Parliament to the heartlands of the Moral Majority the guardians of 'traditional values' prepare their last stand. On the left too, it is frequently argued--sometimes with regret more often with easy confidence--that the family is in decline. Yet the family continues to thrive, both as an institution and as an ideology. Our society is saturated with familialism. Welfare services take it as a natural point of reference. Trade unions still bargain on the basis of the 'family wage'. The return to 'family values' is offered as a cure for everything from unemployment to street crime. In this compact book, Michèle Barrett and Mary McIntosh dissect the network of household, kinship and sexual relations that is the dominant family form in advanced capitalist societies. They explore the personal and social needs that it ideally meets but more often denies. They consider the role of the nuclear family form in capitalism and its functions in the formation of gendered subjectivity, taking issue with theses of such writers as Jacques Donzelot and Christopher Lasch. A final chapter proposes some elements of a moral and political practice directed beyond the family towards more egalitarian and caring alternatives. Barrett and McIntosh have written a sensitive but uncompromising socialist-feminist critique of 'the anti-social family.'"--Publisher's description |
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| Item Description: | Includes index This WorldCat-derived record is shareable under Open Data Commons ODC-BY, with attribution to OCLC |
| Physical Description: | 164 p. ; 21 cm 164 pages ; 21 cm |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references and index |
| ISBN: | 0860910520 : 0860910520 0860917517 (pbk.) : 0860917517 (pbk.) 0860917517 9780860910527 9780860917519 (pbk.) 9780860917519 |