SOC101Y1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Neo-Marxism, Nuclear Family, Social Constructionism
Document Summary
All our kin: aid to families with dependent children makes presence of men, in conditions of unstable employment, irrational. Family is based on a network of female relatives who share resources. The traditional nuclear family: the traditional nuclear family is comprised of: a father-provider, a mother-homemaker, at least one natural or adopted child, parsons: economically efficient, because the man is normally the highest-wage earner. It would be economically irrational of him to spend potential working time on unpaid household and child care: biologically possible to have 17 babies. Sociological theories of family: the political economy (marxist and neo-marxist approach, structuralist approach, symbolic-interactionist approach (baker: social constructionist, knezevic: relies on qualitative interviewing and field observation-not experiments. Some functions of the family: socialization: the only inalienable function of the family, according to parsons and bales, economic cooperation: historically variable, men-hunters and women-gatherers (exception: pre-colonial philippines). Relative gender equality: preindustrial household: unit of production.
