Family Studies is a key area of policy, professional and personal debate. Perhaps precisely because of this, teaching texts have struggled withhow to approach this area, which is both 'familiar' and also contentious and value laden. This innovative and reflective book deals with such dilemmas head-on, through its focus on family meanings in diverse contexts in order to enhance our understanding of everyday social lives and professional practices. Drawing on extracts and research by leadingauthors in the field of family studies, Understanding Family Meanings provides the reader with an overview of the basic concepts and theories related to families using readings with questions and analysis to encourage reflection and learning. Published in association with The Open University, the book centralises the question what is 'family' and focuses on family meanings as the key underpinnings for academic study and professional training. It explores the shifting and subtle ways in which individuals, researchers, policy-makers and professionals make sense of the idea of 'family' and in doing so considers issues of power, inequality and values which are integral to any understanding of family meanings. Audio discussions with leading authorities in the field are also available online to enhance the content and key concepts of the book. It thereforeprovides an excellent foundation for any module in family studies, as well as all professional training modules that include attention to families and close relationships, and for further learning in the area of families and relationships.

Frequently asked questions

Simply head over to the account section in settings and click on “Cancel Subscription” - it’s as simple as that. After you cancel, your membership will stay active for the remainder of the time you’ve paid for. Learn more here.

At the moment all of our mobile-responsive ePub books are available to download via the app. Most of our PDFs are also available to download and we're working on making the final remaining ones downloadable now. Learn more here.

Both plans give you full access to the library and all of Perlego’s features. The only differences are the price and subscription period: With the annual plan you’ll save around 30% compared to 12 months on the monthly plan.

We are an online textbook subscription service, where you can get access to an entire online library for less than the price of a single book per month. With over 1 million books across 1000+ topics, we’ve got you covered! Learn more here.

Look out for the read-aloud symbol on your next book to see if you can listen to it. The read-aloud tool reads text aloud for you, highlighting the text as it is being read. You can pause it, speed it up and slow it down. Learn more here.

Yes, you can access Understanding Family Meanings by Ribbens McCarthy, Jane,Doolittle, Megan in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Social Sciences & Children's Studies in Sociology. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Information

Publisher

Policy Press

Year

2012

ISBN

9781447308799

Topic

Social Sciences

Subtopic

Children's Studies in Sociology

Index

Social Sciences

Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Contents
Chapter 1. Why family meanings?
Part 1: Research
Introduction to Part 1
Chapter 2. Family meanings in contemporary contexts
Chapter 3. Teasing threads apart
Chapter 4. Understanding ‘family’ and household through quantitative evidence
Part 2: Theories and concepts
Introduction to Part 2
Chapter 5. Family discourses and family practices
Chapter 6. Intimacy and personal life
Part 3: Contexts
Introduction to Part 3
Chapter 7. Family meanings across time and place
Chapter 8. Family meanings in social policies and professional practices
Conclusions
Chapter 9. Family meanings, family values
Acknowledgements