Books in the Palgrave Macmillan Studies in Family and Intimate Life series

This study is based upon original research carried out with lesbian, gay and queer parents and explores how genealogy, kinship, family, everyday life, gender, race, state welfare and intimacy are theorized and lived out, drawing upon interactionist, feminist, discursive and queer sociologies.

Recent theorizing tends to position ordinary relationships as something we have lost, yet the nature of these relationships is not seriously engaged with. Drawing on rich empirical data, this book questions epochal claims about contemporary emotional lives, setting out to be explicit about the nature of ordinary relationships.

This edited collection uses the concept of 'displaying families' as a new way to understand contemporary family and personal life, addressing how, in a world of fluid relationships, family life must not only be 'done' but also be 'seen to be done'.

Despite the growing multi-faith and multi-ethnic nature of Britain, there is insufficient knowledge about diversity in family practices across ethno-religious groups. This book fills that gap, exploring family practices - values, roles, relationships, support systems and daily routines - among South Asian Muslim families in Britain.

With reproductive medical technologies becoming more accessible, assisted donor conception is raising new and important questions about family life. Using in-depth interviews the authors explore the lived reality of donor conception and offer insights into the complexities of these new family relationships.

Drawing on recent developments within the sociology of family life, this book examines family connection and solidarity within different stepfamily networks, focusing on relationships from a kinship perspective and using case studies of people's experiences to explore how family connection is constructed within different stepfamilies.

Exploring the growing global trend of solo living, this highly original study addresses core debates about contemporary social change in the context of globalization, including individualization and connection, the future of family formation, consumption and identities, belonging and 'community', living arrangements and sustainability.

Assembling Mass Observation Archive material with historiographies of family, house and nation from ancient-Greece to present-day Europe, China and America, this book contributes to current debates on identity, belonging, memory and material culture by exploring how power works in the small spaces of home.

It is now over 20 years since 'open adoption' was first introduced, but it remains a controversial and contested part of social work practice.

Drawing on recent developments within the sociology of family life, this book examines family connection and solidarity within different stepfamily networks, focusing on relationships from a kinship perspective and using case studies of people's experiences to explore how family connection is constructed within different stepfamilies.

Leading family sociologist David Morgan revisits his highly influential 'family practices' approach in this new book. Exploring its impact, and how it has been critiqued, Morgan shows the continued relevance of the approach with reference to time and space, the body, emotions, ethics and work/life balance.

As intimate lives become more public, and discussions of gender and sexuality more complex, there is a need to rethink how we engage with our own perceptions and identifications with respect to intimacy. This book explores whether our intimate desires are limited by social norms and expectations, and if so what we might be able to do about it.

This book studies the growing number of lesbian women embarking on parenthood after coming out. Theoretical debates about lesbian motherhood often consider its assimilative or transgressive dimensions. This book offers a different approach, contextualising lesbian motherhood in relation to sexual citizenship and hegemonic discourses of kinship

This book offers a comparative study of the lives of young adult women and their mothers in Hong Kong and Britain. Set against the backdrop of debates regarding the consequences of late modern social change for family and intimate life, the authors consider the challenges of exploring these issues across differing cultures.

Drawing on the writings of Foucault, this book explores the politics and power-dynamics of family life, examining how everyday obligations such as attending school, going to work and staying healthy are organized through the family. The book includes an essay by Foucault, Les desordres des familles , translated here in English for the first time.

This book conceptualises the lived experience of intimacy in a world in which the terms and conditions of love and friendship are increasingly unclear. It shows that the analysis of the 'small world' of dyads can give important clues about society and its gendered makeup.

Based on repeat interviews from a range of generational perspectives, this book explores the nature of contemporary British Chinese households and childhoods, examining the extent to which parents identify themselves as being Chinese and how decisions to uphold or move away from 'traditional' Chinese values impacts on their child-rearing methods.

In this book, Dimitra Hartas explores parenting and its influence on children's learning and wellbeing while examining the impact of social class amidst policy initiatives to eradicate child poverty in 21st Century Britain.

This edited collection uses the concept of 'displaying families' as a new way to understand contemporary family and personal life, addressing how, in a world of fluid relationships, family life must not only be 'done' but also be 'seen to be done'.

This book examines common familial trends and differences throughout Europe from the 1960s onwards and discusses the most common theoretical explanations for convergence and divergence. Eriikka Oinonen reveals how structural factors such as the labour market, the welfare state and the EU affect Europeans' family related choices.

Drawing on the writings of Foucault, this book explores the politics and power-dynamics of family life, examining how everyday obligations such as attending school, going to work and staying healthy are organized through the family. The book includes an essay by Foucault, Les desordres des familles , translated here in English for the first time.

This book critically assesses the main features of the modernization of family life and personal relationships by examining and comparing three European countries with different social and political pathways: Portugal, Switzerland and Lithuania. Drawing on national surveys of family trajectories and social networks, the contributors highlight personal and family relationships through the lens of network and life course perspectives as well as gender and generational perspectives. Providing innovative, comparative findings on families and personal networks through the use of diverse methodologies, this edited collection will be of interest to scholars, students and policymakers across a range of social science disciplines.

This edited collection explores family relations in two types of 'migrant families' in Europe: mixed families and transnational families. Based on in-depth qualitative fieldwork and large surveys, the contributors analyse gender and intergenerational relations from a variety of standpoints and migratory flows. In their examination of family life in a migratory context, the authors develop theoretical approaches from the social sciences that go beyond migration studies, such as intersectionality, the solidarity paradigm, care circulation, reflexive modernization and gender convergence theory. Making Multicultural Families in Europe will be of interest to students and scholars across a range of disciplines including migration and transnationalism studies, family studies, intergenerational studies, gender studies, cultural studies, development studies, globalization studies, ethnic studies, gerontology studies, social network analysis and social work.