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From Function to Competence: Engaging with the New Politics of Family

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  • Val Gillies

Abstract

This paper argues for a critical reclaiming of family and highlights the risks associated with decentring such a powerful and pervasive concept. Influential critiques of family as an organising category are considered in the context of a contemporary trend towards reorienting it within broader studies foregrounding personal and intimate realms of human connectedness. It is suggested that while concepts of personal lives and intimacy have much to offer they can not capture the full range and nature of relations raised through the lens of family. In particular the political consequences of subsuming family within wider approaches are set out through reference to a new public politics of family in which emphasis is placed less on structure and function, and more on knowledge and competence. Through an exploration of the key changes characterising this shift a case is made for retaining family (alongside intimacy and personal life) as a flexible, enduring and necessary sociological framework.

Suggested Citation

  • Val Gillies, 2011. "From Function to Competence: Engaging with the New Politics of Family," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 16(4), pages 109-119, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:socres:v:16:y:2011:i:4:p:109-119
    DOI: 10.5153/sro.2393
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Lynn Jamieson & David Morgan & Graham Crow & Graham Allan, 2006. "Friends, Neighbours and Distant Partners: Extending or Decentring Family Relationships?," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 11(3), pages 39-47, September.
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    Cited by:

    1. Jane Ribbens McCarthy & Val Gilles & Carol-Ann Hooper, 2018. "Introduction," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 23(1), pages 153-159, March.
    2. Sara EldéN & Terese Anving, 2016. "New Ways of Doing the ‘Good’ and Gender Equal Family: Parents Employing Nannies and Au Pairs in Sweden," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 21(4), pages 44-56, November.
    3. Anna-Maija Castrén & Kaisa Ketokivi, 2015. "Studying the Complex Dynamics of Family Relationships: A Figurational Approach," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 20(1), pages 108-121, February.
    4. Kirsty Morrin, 2018. "Tensions in Teaching Character: How the ‘Entrepreneurial Character’ is Reproduced, ‘Refused’, and Negotiated in an English Academy School," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 23(2), pages 459-476, June.
    5. Georgia Philip, 2013. "‘Extending the Analytical Lens’[1]: A Consideration of the Concepts of ‘Care’ and ‘Intimacy’ in Relation to Fathering after Separation or Divorce," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 18(1), pages 97-107, February.
    6. Sarah Marie Hall & Clare Holdsworth, 2016. "Family Practices, Holiday and the Everyday," Mobilities, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(2), pages 284-302, April.

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