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Personal Life
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Check link for latest rating. ( 15 ratings, 2 reviews)
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Personal Life
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?
This book is essential for academics and students in sociology and social sciences, as well as anyone interested in the future of family and personal relationships. It suits readers seeking a deeper theoretical and empirical understanding of intimate social life.
For more than a decade, Carol Smart has been at the forefront of debates about the sociology of the family. Yet she has become frustrated by the fixation of many commentators with the supposed decline of commitment, and even the decline of the possibility of family life.
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Description
For more than a decade, Carol Smart has been at the forefront of debates about the sociology of the family. Yet she has become frustrated by the fixation of many commentators with the supposed decline of commitment, and even the decline of the possibility of family life. In this exciting new book, she puts forward a new way of understanding families and relationships.
Breaking with conventional wisdom, Personal Life offers a fresh conceptual approach to understanding personal life, which realigns empirical research with theoretical analysis. She gives emphasis to ideas of connectedness, relationality and embeddedness, rejecting many of the assumptions found in theories of individualisation and de-traditionalisation by authors such as Beck and Beck-Gernsheim, Bauman and Giddens.
Instead, her approach prioritises the bonds between people, the importance of memory and cultural heritage, the significance of emotions (both positive and negative), how family secrets work and change over time, and the underestimated importance of things such as shared possessions or homes in the maintenance and memory of relationships.
This ground-breaking text will be essential reading for anyone who cares about the future of families and personal relationships, and who wants to understand this most intimate area of social life.
Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?
Brenda Almond, Times Higher Education Supplement, describes it as "a striking book – honest, engaging, insightful," offering perceptive insights beyond academia. Judith Stacey from New York University praises it as "a creative, invigorating book" that reconfigures the study of family and appeals across disciplines and borders. The book is noted for reconnecting sociology with lived personal experiences through family memories and emotions.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9780745639178
Publisher: John Wiley and Sons Ltd
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 31 August 2007
Country: United Kingdom
Imprint: Polity Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly
DIMENSIONS
Spine width: 19.0mm
Width: 140.0mm
Height: 216.0mm
Weight: 290g
Pages: 232
Collections
About the Author
Carol Smart is Professor of Sociology at the Morgan Centre for the Study of Relationships and Personal Life, School of Social Science, University of Manchester.
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