Families As We Are: Conversations from Around the World - Hardcover

Huston, Perdita

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1558612505 ISBN 13: 9781558612501

Publisher: Feminist Press at The City University of New York, 2000

Synopsis

Families As We Are has at its core the words and ideas of ordinary people. Huston spent more than four years interviewing three and four generations of families of all socioeconomic backgrounds in twelve countries: Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Egypt, El Salvador, Japan, Jordan, Mali, Thailand, Uganda, and the United States.

While others mourn the loss of "family values," Huston discovers families who are strengthening themselves to face new realities. She describes the new forces that are changing families and finds positive as well as negative values in these transformations. While traditional families have been undermined by urbanization, economic transformation, emigration, and the global information culture, the family has also been positively changed by an increased regard for individual liberties and democratic values, and by a breakdown of patriarchal power.

Huston expands the definition of family, demonstrating that families come in all sizes and forms, from small nuclear families to large multigenerational groups, from street children who band together for protection and companionship to groups of prostitute women who live together and care for each other's children. Through the words of scores of family members, this volume presents families reinforcing and revisioning bonds forged of tradition and pragmatism, respect and love, as they face the challenges of the new millennium. Huston's fresh perspective--gained from several decades of working directly with families around the world--leads her to conclude that while the changes in families "may look like breakdown to those facing backwards, it looks like renovation to those facing the future."

About this title

Review

"Will grab immigrant teens, but all readers will relate to the stories across generations, for curriculum and personal reading."
--Booklist

"This is a book that should be read by everyone who cares how people live today, with whom, and why. . . . It's impossible to exaggerate the importance of this work and the major impact it will have, on individual opinions and public policy. But this is also a fascinating book that will make you laugh and cry in recognition, a story of your relativity and mine, the true story of the human family."
--Robin Morgan, author of Sisterhood Is Powerful

"Families around the world are adapting to different contexts and pressures, [and] the changing pattern of family life that emerges is a topic which has profound human rights implications for all. . . . Huston's examination of the issues . . . will help us respond positively to changes in family life. It makes the case for strengthening universal human rights all the more compelling."
--Mary Robinson, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights

Synopsis

This book offers an informed response to the policy makers and media pundits who have joined forces to bemoan the 'decline of the family'. Perdita Huston's fresh perspective -- gained from several decades of working directly with families around the world -- leads her to conclude that while the changes in families "may look like breakdown to those facing backwards, it looks like renovation to those facing the future". While others mourn the loss of 'family values', Huston discovers families who are strengthening themselves to face new realities. She describes the new forces that are changing family structures and relationships, and finds positive as well as negative values in these transformations. While traditional family structures have been undermined by urbanisation, economic shifts, emigration, and the global information culture, the family has also been positively changed by an increased regard for individual liberties and democratic values.

Huston's work broadens the concept of family, demonstrating that families come in all sizes and forms, from small nuclear families to large multigenerational groups, from street children who band together for protection and companionship to groups of prostitute women who live together and care for each other's children. Through the words of scores of family members, this volume presents families reinforcing and re-envisioning bonds forged of tradition, pragmatism, respect, and love, as they face the challenges of the new millennium.

About this edition

• Publisher: Feminist Press at The City University of New York
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 1558612505
• ISBN 13: 9781558612501
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320