Faith Elliot's book has a coherence unusual in a textbook. As its title suggests, it directs our attention to change and continuity in the family. It reviews debates about the biological origins of the nuclear family and gender roles, accounts of the development of the conjugal family as the dominant family form in modern Western societies and of change in the roles of men and women within and without the family, the remodelling of the conjugal family consequent on the legitimation of divorce and the emergence of one-parent families and remarriage families, and the development of alternative lifestyles as exemplified in unmarried cohabitation, same-sex pairings and group living. The book considers Marxist and feminist approaches alongside the functional approaches which have been more traditional in the sociological study of the family.
- ISBN10 0333329694
- ISBN13 9780333329696
- Publish Date 27 October 1986 (first published 8 September 1986)
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 7 December 1994
- Publish Country GB
- Imprint Palgrave Macmillan
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 248
- Language English