Understanding Families
A Global Introduction
- Linda McKie - Glasgow Caledonian University, UK, Durham University, UK
- Samantha Callan - Edinburgh University, UK
Families are at the core of our society. Our experience of them affects many aspects of our everyday lives shaping our expectations and future plans.
Written by field experts this clear, engaging book adopts a global perspective to usefully examine how modern families can be explored and understood. Packed with critical pedagogy, including case-studies, think points, key words and a glossary, it guides students through topics such as relationships, sexualities and paid and unpaid work.
The book also:
- Applies key social theories from classical sociological theory and contemporary analysis
- Examines best practice for researching families and family life
- Explores the role of government policies and practices
This comprehensive introduction to the study of families and relationships is a timely resource for students and lecturers working across the social sciences.
This excellent, innovative, comprehensive and easy to read text should be essential reading for everyone keen to understand families across the globe. It addresses key questions, carefully blends policy concerns, research issues and theoretical debates, points to further reading and includes a very helpful glossary. It will make an outstanding contribution to family studies and is highly recommended
Janet Walker
Emeritus Professor, Newcastle University
This is a clearly written, well organized, and highly digestible overview of the sociology of the family. It covers major themes and issues, including important changes over time in behavior as well as the ideas used to understand patterns of behavior and structure. The authors manage to include a strong international perspective while highlighting many specific examples and trends in the UK and across Europe. What I appreciate so much about this book is that it is to the point and not overburdened by a tedious amount of detail or nuances of the type that can so easily mire and demoralize readers who are trying to capture the essential features in the study of the family. I highly recommend this book for serious students who want to efficiently capture the gist of this thing called family
Scott M. Stanley
Research Professor and Co Director of the Center for Marital and Family Studies, University of Denver, USA
I don't know how often I've wished for an introductory text on family life which encompassed critical contemporary sociological thinking alongside the basic information students need, and have only found fossilised thinking on a stodgy subject. But now all that has changed. McKie and Callan have achieved what I thought was almost impossible in Understanding Families; this is a textbook which provides unrivalled foundations for a critical understanding of contemporary families and relationships
Carol Smart
Professor of Sociology, The Morgan Centre, University of Manchester
This is a very dense and intersting text that covers a lot of ground.
This is a very useful book for people 1) needing to understand more about families and 2) who want to do research into families. It is an academic textbook as opposed to practitioner oriented handbook but I think could still be useful for trainee family therapists and for research into work with families.
We have adopted this book for our new module Connected Lives, as it provides students with a good gounding in the current theoretical, research, and policy issues and developments, which are needed to understand families in contemporary society.
This book is a very comprehensive overview of many of the issues relating to families. It covers research into families, family policy and wider political ideologies that impact upon the family. Relationships within families is explored and work life balance. It is a very reader friendly volume also.
I would recommend this book to students on introductory courses on families and relationships. It is a very clear introduction to those entirely new to this topic, and comprehensive enough to provide useful material to those with some familiarity.
A comprehenensive text that makes essential reading for social work students
This is an excellent and highly accessible introduction to family studies, bringing together concepts, policies and trends in such a clear and comprehensive manner. Its presentation of relevant theory is unparalleled in its breadth while maintaining clarity and focus. Its international approach gives this book universal relevance, and its chapter on researching families is particularly valuable for social policy graduates planning their dissertation in this field. The glossary is also very useful.
I enjoyed the layout of this book and the indicators to prompt students to cross reference different issues. This is useful for first year UG students to encourage more evaluation and reflection in their work. Good overall coverage of the main issues (particularly the inclusion of feminist theory and links to research and policy. I would have liked to see the section on public/ private issues clearly indicate the issuesa around domestic violence and abuse and child abuse relating to the taboo still here and myths around strangers rather than familial abuse still being pushed through the media etc..
A useful text, helps the reader to develop understanding of similarities and differences in relation to the family across the world. The links between chapters and glossary are particularly helpful.
