The Making and Breaking of the Australian Family - Softcover

Gilding, Michael

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0044423489 ISBN 13: 9780044423485

Publisher: Allen & Unwin, 1991

Synopsis

Once everyone knew what the family was. It was something natural and without a history - mum, dad and the kids. Divorce, women in the workforce, de facto relationships and the sexual liberation movements have fractured the old certainties. Nowadays there is more talk about the family than ever, even if no-one is quite sure what it is anymore. The making and breaking of the Australian family looks at the family in history. It traces the shift from the household economy of the late nineteenth century, to the child-centred nuclear family of the mid-twentieth century, to the recent proliferation of households. The book argues that the so-called traditional family was a quite recent creation, and that its fragmentation is obscured by new redefinitions of the family. The making and breaking of the Australian family addresses the changing experiences of childhood, parenting, home, neighbourhood, work, birth and sexuality. It examines the expansion of the market and the state, patterns of class mobilisation, the reconstruction of masculinity and femininity and the creative strategies of ordinary people in everyday life. This is a lively and accessible book, which will prove a valuable reference for students of history, sociology, women's studies and Australian studies, and will generate wide discussion amongst people concerned with family policy, welfare and contemporary social issues.

About this title

Synopsis:

"The Making and Breaking of the Australian Family" is concerned with the Australian social history and the theory of the family. The book places the debate in its historical context, pointing out that the family is not a pre-given institution, but rather an historically changing set of relationships. Definitions of the family have changed substantially over the past century. There have been controversies over the family before, but it has not been the same family form which has been defended or challenged. Not only has the meaning of the family changed; so too has the experience of family life. The author traces the changing experience of everyday life and family organization over the past century, examining the making of the post-war nuclear family, with its breadwinner husband, housewife/mother and dependent children, and the changes that have taken place since then. Clearly written, up-to-date and down-to-earth, this book will be a valuable reference for students of sociology, Australian history and the human service professions. It will also be of interest to a wider readership concerned with family issues, past and present.

"Michael Gilding is Lecturer in Social and Political Studies at Swinburne Institute of Technology.". This book is intended for students and researchers in the sociology of the family and Australian social history.

About the Author:

Michael Gilding has a degree in history and a PhD in sociology. He is currently a Lecturer in Sociology at Swinburne Institute of Technology in Victoria.

About this edition

• Publisher: Allen & Unwin
• Publication date: 1991
• ISBN 10: 0044423489
• ISBN 13: 9780044423485
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 182