Sociol 322: A sociology of relational life DOING AND DISPLAYING FAMILY LIFE

Expectations By the end of this week I expect that you will be: familiar with what prompted Morgan and then Finch to develop their theoretical constructions Understand what is meant by family practices and family displays be able to use both theoretical constructs to analyse and make sense of your own family life; recognise that family practices are simultaneously gender, class and ethnic practices recognise the normative nature of family practices

Morgan rejects a structural approach to studying families Family practices

What did you do in the weekend? But Morgan also argues it is important to retain a focus on families. Why? What did you do in the weekend?

What are family practices? Family practices are ‘all of the ordinary, everyday actions that people do, insofar as they are intended to have some effect on another family member’ Cheal, cited Morgan 2011 p. 9 What are family practices?

Constitutive role of family practices Family practices ‘define who counts as a family member, at least for the time that these practices are being followed’ [Morgan 2011, 10] & ‘the practices directed to another family member also constitute that other as part of a broader family constellation’ [Morgan 2011, 10].

Through family practices we do family in two senses We do everyday family life through family practices & We produce and maintain who counts as family through family practices

Identifying family practices In your family – your family you grew up in or your family now – identify and jot down important family practices Role of gender, class, ethnicity in shaping family practices? Cultural norms and family practices Missing family practices?

Corrosive Family Practices ‘Family practices may often seem oppressive, constraining, threatening or dangerous.’ … ‘To say that practices are…significant is to state that such practices are difficult to ignore, not that they are necessarily benevolent or agreeable. (Morgan 1996, 192-193).’

Critical issues Does the idea of ‘family practices’ suffer from the use of ‘family’ as a descriptor and its associated baggage? Does the concept of family practices encourage recognition of the way in which practicing family might be socially constrained?

Family displays “Display is the process by which individuals, and groups of individuals, convey to each other and to relevant audiences that certain of their actions do constitute ‘doing family things’ and thereby confirm that these relationships are ‘family’ relationships.” [Finch 2007, 67]

“However, to focus only on apparently non-conventional families would be to miss a central point of display. In a world where families are defined by the qualitative character of the relationships rather than by membership, and where individual identities are deeply bound up with those relationships, all relationships require an element of display to sustain them as family relationships.” [Finch 2007, 71; my emphasis]

“…there are certain circumstances where the need for display becomes more intense, at least for the moment. This may be because new individuals – new relationships – come into the picture. But equally it can result from circumstances changing: an adult child goes to live in a different part of the country, a woman who has previously focused on caring for children takes a full-time job, a parent suddenly becomes much more dependent. In these examples, the ‘membership’ does not change but individual identities are changing and the family-like qualities of relationships will need to be redefined, renegotiated and actively demonstrated.” [Finch 2007, 72; my emphasis]

Tools for family display “Narratives are seen as stories which people tell to themselves and to others about their own family relationships, which enable them to be understood and situated as part of an accepted repertoire of what ‘family’ means.” [Finch, 2007, 78] Tools for family display What role facebook?

Displays and recognition “…there is a real sense in which relationships do not exist as family relationships unless they can be displayed successfully. They cannot exist solely in my own consciousness. They need to be understood and accepted as such by others, and the way in which I relate to relevant others needs to be recognized as ‘family like’.” [Finch 2007, 79; added emphasis]