Modernism, Postmodernism & the family

Modernism, Postmodernism & the family

Modernist view of the family

As far as the family is concerned the functionalist view is a typically modernist view of the family.

As the functionalist Talcott Parsons has argued, the nuclear family [the ideal of two parents & two children parents consisting of a male breadwinner and a female whose role concentrates on the domestic realm] has developed to meet the needs of modern industrial society.

As functionalism is a structural theory, it argues that this particular ideal type of family should be the preferred norm for all to conform to.

This is how functionalism links into the modernist framework in that it argues that one particular type of family system is the type to be adopted by everyone.

As functionalists also argue that if society is to remain stable and successfully socialise children into the accepted norms and values of society [and promote social stability] the nuclear family should be the norm.

A modernist approach to the family is arguably characterised by the following four major sentiments:

1.Romantic love

Marriage is seen as the climax of romantic love with children being a symbol of the couples commitment to each other exclusively heterosexual.

2.Maternal love

The notion that a married womans ultimate aspiration is to have children and be primarily responsible for their socialisation. Women who choose not to have children are viewed as unnatural.

3.Domesticity

The view that the family is a secure haven in a heartless world a place where family members receive nurturing, care and love. Women in particular are expected to be both the emotional and domestic caretakers.

4.Patriarchal control

The male is expected to be the head of the household and to provide for the family. The father is also seen to be responsible for family discipline. Charles Murray [below] argues that this causes problems in one-parent families.

From the 1980s onwards right-wing thinkers, sociologists and politicians became concerned that the nuclear family was failing to adopt these sentiments.

For example Charles Murray [a New Right theorist similarly to the functionalist approach] argues that it is due to the increase of teenage single mothers that a moral decline has developed in society.

Girls who are too young are nurturing their children into a situation where welfare dependency, lack of male discipline/ role models, and lack of morality and decency is rife.

Children born into this situation can only repeat the destructive cycle and contribute to the moral decline of society.

Murrays response to this is to remove any welfare/benefit so as not to promote this kind of action.

What criticisms can you think of in relation to this argument?

The rise of the postmodern

The postmodernist approach to the family is critical of the simplistic and generalised modernist understanding.

The modernist approach to preferring a particular type of family ideal is seen as restrictive and in effect defines all other family types as deviant.

For postmodernists family life is pluralistic, diverse, various and unstable as opposed to consisting of a single, absolute structure.

The postmodernist view of the family is one of:

chaos

differentiation

confusion [and fusion]

Bernardes (1999) argues that a postmodernist approach to the family does not assert what is true, or what should be but advocates seeking out what the various types of family life are actually like.

How many different types of family structures can you think of that exist in contemporary society?

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