Shame, a powerful emotion, leads individuals to feel vulnerable, victimized, rejected. In Shameless, noted scholar and writer Arlene Stein explores American culture's attitudes toward shame and sexuality.

Some say that we live in a world without shame. But American culture is a curious mix of the shameless and the shamers, a seemingly endless parade of Pamela Andersons and Jerry Falwells strutting their stuff and wagging their fingers. With thoughtful analysis and wit, Shameless analyzes these clashing visions of sexual morality.

While conservatives have brought back sexual shame--by pushing for abstinence-only sex education, limitations on abortion, and prohibitions of gay/lesbian civil rights--progressives hold out for sexual liberalization and a society beyond "the closet." As these two Americas compete with one another, the future of family life, the right to privacy, and the very meaning of morality hang in the balance.

In Reconstructing Marriage - The Legal Status of Relationships in a Changing Society Caroline Sorgjerd explores the essence of the institution of marriage: what is the meaning of marriage today, how has marriage been influenced by the legal recognition of new cohabitation models and what should be the role of the institution of marriage in the future? In order to understand what marriage actually is in the twenty-first century it is necessary to identify and analyze the formalities and function of marriage in society. With a focus on Sweden, the author examines the historical development of marriage - beginning as a 'gift from God' and now being a gender-neutral institution - from a legal and political perspective and taking into account the past and present role of the Church of Sweden. The author then makes comparative assessments concerning the legal and political developments leading toward the adoption of gender-neutral marriage concepts in the Netherlands and Spain despite different societal backgrounds. In addition, the significance of the marital status under European Union law is explored, under the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and in the jurisprudence of the European Court of Justice. Also the relevant decisions based on the European Convention of Human Rights, as interpreted by the European Court of Human Rights, are examined. The author discovers that the key role that the institution of marriage has played in the past still influences the essence of marriage today and charges it with a special symbolic value.

For many years, government policy has associated young people 'being NEET' (Not in Education, Employment or Training) with educational underachievement, worklessness, generational poverty, poor health, antisocial behaviour, and reduced life expectancies. Researchers and policymakers continue to debate whether young people become NEET as a result of their own choices (i.e. their personal agency), or as a result of external factors (i.e. social, political and economic structures). Most recognise that the truth is somewhere between the two, but a clear understanding of how each interacts in causing young people to become NEET has so far been elusive, making the development of effective policy and practice problematic. Agency, Structure and the NEET Policy Problem makes headway against this problem through an original approach that draws on social cognitive theory and the lived experiences of young people themselves. Investigating the lives of NEET young people between the ages of 17-21 in London, this book elucidates the interactions between agency and structure that lead to them becoming NEET, and in doing so, offers a new perspective on the phenomenon. It offers a valuable critique of existing policy, providing both breadth and detail on the factors affecting the trajectories of young people in their transitions to continued education, training, or employment. It offers a way forward for all who are interested in developing, supporting and implementing a revitalised approach to NEET policy and practice, and a framework around which a coherent multidisciplinary approach to addressing NEET could be developed.

Nominated for the 2007 Book Prize by the Council on Anthropology and Reproduction (AAA) Reproductive disruptions, such as infertility, pregnancy loss, adoption, and childhood disability, are among the most distressing experiences in people's lives. Based on research by leading medical anthropologists from around the world, this book examines such issues as local practices detrimental to safe pregnancy and birth; conflicting reproductive goals between women and men; miscommunications between pregnant women and their genetic counselors; cultural anxieties over gamete donation and adoption; the contested meanings of abortion; cultural critiques of hormone replacement therapy; and the globalization of new pharmaceutical and assisted reproductive technologies. This breadth - with its explicit move from the "local" to the "global," from the realm of everyday reproductive practice to international programs and policies - illuminates most effectively the workings of power, the tensions between women's and men's reproductive agency, and various cultural and structural inequalities in reproductive health.

This book explores what a sense of belonging-its components and state-means for the adopted children and those in care. It contributes to reader's understanding of these children's emotional well-being, mental health, and potential for success in life through education and beyond.

Examining the role of home and family in the latter part of the 20th century, this book covers such subjects as the single parent, institutions and homes, the role of the mother in the family, and domestic architecture and domestic life. Graham Allan has also written "A Sociology of Friendship and Kinship", "Family Life" and "Friendship: Developing a Sociological Perspective".

Drawing on children's narratives about their everyday life this book explores how children understand the process of socialization as an embodied, biographical experience at home, at school and in the neighbourhood. Through close analysis of what children have to say, the book shows how children actively learn from and contribute to the mundane practices and interactions of everyday social life. Through these experiences they get to know about social norms, rules and values and also develop their sense of self and identity. Working from this child-centred perspective and drawing on recent theoretical ideas about personal life and the individual, the book demonstrates the valuable contribution that childhood studies can make to long-standing sociological debates about processes of social reproduction and social change.

The study of disability and its clinical treatment has become exponentially more complex as ever more interventions are developed that increase the life span. Consequently, developmental challenges facing people with disabilities and their families change throughout a lifetime.Unlike other texts, which concentrate only on the childhood years, "Disability and the Family Life Cycle" covers the entire life span within the family context, emphasizing maturational issues, with each chapter focusing on a different period of life. "Disability and the Family Life Cycle" is the only book to cover such topics as adult sons and daughters with disabilities, the developmental needs of the disabled elderly, and the needs of spouses and siblings.

This edited volume presents a detailed portrait of couples living with mixed HIV status, where one partner is HIV-positive and the other negative. Readers will come to understand the various and complex ways in which these mixed-status, or serodiscordant couples build a life together within the shadow of HIV-related stigma. Spanning the globe, coverage explores serodiscordance as a negotiated practice and process, inseparable from the social context in which it is situated. The book shows how couples draw on diverse and sometimes contradictory cultural discourses of medicine, romance, and "normality" to make sense of and manage their mixed HIV status and any perceived risks, not uncommonly in ways that depart from prevailing HIV prevention messages. Throughout, compelling personal stories accompany the empirical research, sharing the firsthand experiences of men and women in serodiscordant relationships. Bringing together research from diverse disciplines and geographical regions, this book contributes important insights for future HIV health promotion as well as offers new knowledge to scholarship on the cultural intersections of illness and intimacy. It will appeal to a broad audience working across the fields of HIV, health, gender, sexuality, development, and human rights.

This book addresses new avenues in child abuse prevention research that will expand our capacity to protect children. These new avenues result from the emergence of new research methods made possible through technologic advances, an understanding of the benefits of cross-disciplinary research and learning and the entrance of many young scholars in the field. The book explores what these avenues produce in terms of clarifying the complex problems that continue to limit our progress in addressing child maltreatment and promoting optimal child development. Specifically, the book showcases individual contributions from emerging scholars and show how these scholars use the frameworks and advanced methods to shape their work, apply their findings and define their learning communities. The book highlights the benefits of creating explicit and extended opportunities for researchers to network across disciplines and areas of interest. The primary authors are young scholars from universities across the U.S. who have worked together as Fellows of the Doris Duke Fellowships for the Promotion of Child Well-Being - seeking innovations to prevent child abuse. Through this program, the Fellows have engaged in a robust self-generating learning network designed to create the type of ongoing professional linkages and decision-making style that fosters an interdisciplinary and team planning approach to research design and policy formation.

At the dawn of the twentieth century, China's sovereignty was fragile at best. In the face of international pressure and domestic upheaval, young urban radicals--desperate for reforms that would save their nation--clamored for change, championing Western-inspired family reform and promoting free marriage choice and economic and emotional independence. But what came to be known as the New Culture Movement had the unwitting effect of fostering totalitarianism. In this wide-reaching, engrossing book, Susan Glosser examines how the link between family order and national salvation affected state-building and explores its lasting consequences.
Glosser effectively argues that the replacement of the authoritarian, patriarchal, extended family structure with an egalitarian, conjugal family was a way for the nation to preserve crucial elements of its traditional culture. Her comprehensive research shows that in the end, family reform paved the way for the Chinese Communist Party to establish a deeply intrusive state that undermined the legitimacy of individual rights.

Raising a child to be an authentic and mentally robust adult is one of life's great challenges. It is also, fortunately, not a matter of luck. There are many things to understand about how children's minds operate and what they need from those who look after them so they can develop into the best version of themselves. The Good Enough Parent is a compendium of lessons, including ideas on how to say 'no' to a child one adores, how to look beneath the surface of 'bad' behaviour to work out what might really be going on, how to encourage a child to be genuinely kind, how to encourage open self expression, and how to handle the moods and gloom of adolescence. Importantly, this is a book that knows that perfection is not required - and could indeed be unhelpful, because a key job of any parent is to induct a child gently into the imperfect nature of everything. Written in a tone that is encouraging, wry and soaked in years of experience, The Good Enough Parent is an intelligent guide to raising a child who will one day look back on their childhood with just the right mixture of gratitude, humour and love.

..".represents a thought-provoking contribution to the burgeoning literature on adoption, and will be a valuable resource for any who are currently working in this area, or in the fields of kinship or transnationalism in general." . Melissa Demian in JRAI "Transnational adoption is growing phenomenon and Norway has led the way in its legal and social development. In this pioneering study, Norwegian scholar, Signe Howell, brings to the subject not only anthropological insight but the personal experience of an adoptive parent. Her remarkable book is based on comprehensive research both in Norway and in the countries of origin of adopted children, throwing new light on the way that the children identify as Norwegians despite the tendency of adults to associate with their birth places...." . John R. Gillis, Rutgers University "Howell's fascinating work on transnational adoption provides real insight into its experiential, cultural, psychological and legal complexities worldwide and has important implications for our theories of kinship and personhood.... The book deserves to be read not only by anthropologists interested in kinship, but by everyone who wants to understand children and to do what is best for them, including policy-makers, developmental and child psychologists, educators and social workers." . Christina Toren, Director, C-FAR, Brunel University "The Kinning of Foreigners takes the literature on adoption into an entirely new realm by linking theories of identity and of kinship to changes in the practices and ideologies of moving children from one nation to another. ... T]he book shows how rhetoric developed in the West forms understandings of the child, of family, and of kinship throughout the world-a modern version of imperialism. Throughout her scrupulous discussion of national and international policies, laws, and competing interests, Howell never loses sight of the intimate individual aspect of adoption.... The book should be on the shelves of experts, scholars, lawyers, politicians-and, of course, any person who has ever had the exhilarating experience of kinning, or creating a relationship that permanently, transforms the self." . Judith Schachter Modell], Carnegie Mellon University Signe Howell is professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Oslo. She obtained her D.Phil. from the University of Oxford and has been a lecturer in the Department of Social Anthropology at the University of Edinburgh. She has published widely on various aspects of social organization, religion, ritual and kinship.

This book compares understandings and experiences of love and intimacy of one distinct cultural group - Gujarati Indians - born and brought up in two different countries. Using in-depth ethnographic fieldwork with middle-class Gujaratis aged between 20 and 30 years of age, it explores their relationship ideals and early experiences of marriage formation. It shows how discourses on what it means to be modern have interacted with pervasive ongoing status ideologies in both the UK and India.

Whereas in western countries, breastfeeding is an uncontroversial, purely personal issue, in most parts of the world, mother and baby form part of a network of interpersonal relations with its own rules and expectations. In this study, the author examines the cultural and social context of breastfeeding among the Gogo women of the Cigongwe's village in Tanzania, as part of the Paediatric Programme of Doctors with Africa, based in Padua. The focus is on mothers' behaviour and post partum taboos as key elements in Gogo understanding of the vicissitudes of the breast feeding process. This nutritional period is subject to many different events both physical and social that may upset the natural and intense link between mother and child. Any violation of cultural norms, particularly those dealing with sexual behaviour, marriage and reproduction, can, in the eyes of the Gogo, put at risk the correct development of an infant with serious consequences both for the baby's health as well as for the womani s image as mother and wife.

This book conveys a unique, unrivaled, and moving insight into the life of Monty Howell, the little-know eldest son of Leonard Howell, regarded as the Father of Rastafari. Opening several files, over the pages, the man is revealed behind the son. Being both an actor and storyteller of History, Monty Howell blends anecdotes, reflections, and revelations, avoiding no subject, even the most delicate and scorching. With confidence, he takes you through his childhood memories, his conflicts with Jamaica, and his reconciliations on behalf of his father's legacy. With bold, mature, incisive, and provocative assertions, he even reframed the Rasta experiences and the development of Rastafari, altering the terms of the knowledge and the subsequent discourse.

This ground-breaking volume explores the terrain of friendship against the historical backdrop of early modern Europe. In these thought-provoking essays the terms of friendship are explored - from the most intimate and erotically charged to the reciprocities of village life. This is a rich offering in social and cultural history that is attuned to the pervasive language of religion. A hidden history is revealed - of friendships that we have lost, and of friendships starkly, and movingly, familiar.

The Handbook of Crisis Intervention and Developmental Disabilities synthesizes a substantive range of evidence-based research on clinical treatments as well as organizational processes and policy. This comprehensive resource examines the concept of behavioral crisis in children and adults with special needs and provides a data-rich trove of research-into-practice findings. Emphasizing continuum-of-care options and evidence-based best practices, the volume examines crisis interventions across diverse treatment settings, including public and private schools, nonacademic residential settings as well as outpatient and home-based programs. Key coverage includes: Assessment of problem behaviors. Co-occurring psychiatric disorders in individuals with intellectual disabilities. Family members' involvement in prevention and intervention. Intensive treatment in pediatric feeding disorders. Therapeutic restraint and protective holding. Effective evaluation of psychotropic drug effects. The Handbook of Crisis Intervention and Developmental Disabilities is a must-have resource for researchers, scientist-practitioners, and graduate students in clinical child, school, developmental, and counseling psychology, clinical social work, behavior therapy/analysis, and special education as well as other related professionals working across a continuum of service delivery settings.

Richard Sipe, himself a former monk and priest, has made a lifelong venture of determining the reality and meaning of religious celibacy. Even an adequate operational definition of religious celibacy, he says, has been avoided and denied by Catholic hierarchy and scholars to preserve "the celibate myth." Having spent 25 years conducting a study of celibacy and sexual behavior among Roman Catholic priests, Sipe concluded that at any one time no more than 50 percent of priests were practicing celibacy. To more fully understand what celibacy is, how it is practiced, the effect it has on the humanness--the psychology and spirituality--of men and women, and the social effects it presents, Sipe says we can use the approach presented in this book. Specifically, we can analyze historic men who presented themselves or were perceived as living examples of celibacy--Gandhi, Coughlin, Sheen, and Greely--and also focus on the "most profound" truths of celibacy found in literary accounts, from Joyce and Hawthorne to Farrell and Powers. Psychology, religion, and literary criticism interface and are woven together in this book with minimal jargon. The Serpent and the Dove was written in the hope of exciting honest analysis of the essence of religious celibacy and to foster a recrudescence of authentic sexual vigor with all of its evolutionary potential. "Human sexuality is not going away; nor is it irrelevant to the wellbeing, progress and happiness of the human community," says Sipe. "And the practice of genuine celibacy is not going to disappear either. No question, the Catholic Church needs profound reformation. But in all my work I have chosen not to throw any babies out with the horrendously dirty'holy water' the church continues to treasure and disseminate. Here, as in all my work, I try to foster dialogue between religion and science, such as literary criticism. The Catholic Church (and religion) is at a Copernican Moment when it has to cede to science the nature of sexuality." The Serpent and the Dove is one more work among Sipe's many books and articles making the need for that clear.

Rejecting those who urge a bootstrap approach to people living in extreme poverty on the edge of society, sociologist Barbara Arrighi makes an eloquent, compassionate plea for empathy and collective responsibility toward those for whom either the boots or the straps are missing. This book further offers solutions in consciousness raising, community collaboration, and informed, responsible public policy. The book is a critique of a system that purports to serve yet sometimes impedes the welfare of those who are in need of the basic elements for survival, including affordable shelter. It analyzes the structural factors of poverty and the social psychological costs of being poor and lacking a home. Utilizing interview findings from families who have lived in a shelter in northern Kentucky and from staff members, the book examines the degrading effects of shelter life on women's self-respect and children's development. Rather than an examination of individual pathologies leading to lack of shelter, it centers on women and children living in shelters and offers a sociological study of poverty and the family.

Global Perspectives on Well-Being in Immigrant Families addresses how immigrant families and their children cope with the demands of a new country in relation to psychological well-being, adjustment, and cultural maintenance. The book identifies cultural and contextual factors that contribute to well-being during a family s migratory transition to ensure successful outcomes for children and youth. In addition, the findings presented in this book outline issues for future policy and practice including preventive practices that might allow for early intervention and increased cultural sensitivity among practitioners, school staff, and researchers. "

An in-depth and multifaceted examination of the contemporary American family, this introductory handbook is the only one of its kind and presents a solid, authoritative overview. There is little doubt that the American family has changed from colonial times to the present. But what have those changes been? How have family dynamics shifted to deal with the countless new looks of the American Family? In Families in America, author Jeffrey Scott Turner has written a current and complete work that will be of great interest to general audiences as well as students of psychology and sociology. This work sheds light on everything from multicultural family variations and reproductive technologies to families of divorce and blended families. The book is bolstered by chapters that cite recent and important books on family life, as well as a listing of educational videotapes on family life in America. Provides a chronology, an A-Z collection of biographical sketches, and a statistical portrait of family life in America Includes an extensive directory of organizations and annotated bibliography of print and nonprint resources

Will the European Union have its Asingle family - a AEuropean family - as it will have a single currency? This is the question at the origin of this book. Studies of family behavior and the organization of private life among European citizens, as well as of family member social status (children in relation to adults/parents, women in relation to men), and of social functions of the family, for example social reproduction, reveal so much convergence among European families that the reality of a AEuropean family seems inevitable, and more so if one looks at foreign studies done - in Australia, the United States or Japan - of the family in Europe. However, studies of the different judicial and public policy laws in the different European Union member countries lead one to refine this first impression. The family does not have the same legal meaning in all places, and the ways in which it is defined by law and public policy continue to differ strongly, due in particular to historical factors, cultural traditions, and conceptions of the role of the State. In order for the family to be part of the construction of a European citizenship, the pluralistic nature of its political definitions will have to be recognized. Putting the family into the context of evolving European integration has never been done before. It was made possible in this study thanks to the joint efforts of two editors with long experience in social science studies of the family and as expert advisors to the European Commission, and by the work of the best international specialists in the field. This is a book intended for specialists working in the social sciences, for social and government policy-makers in the fields offamily and social policy, and for all those interested in European integration.

This edited volume in American constitutionalism places the Supreme Court's declaration of same-sex marriage rights in U.S. v. Windsor (2013) and Obergefell v. Hodges (2015) within the context of the Court's developing understanding of the legal and social status of marriage and the family. Leading scholars in the fields of political science, law, and religion examine the roots of the Court's affirmation of same-sex rights in a number of areas related to marriage and the family including the right to marry, equality and happiness in marriage, the right to privacy, freedom of association, property rights, parental power, and reproductive rights. Taken together, these essays evaluate the extent to which the Court's recent marriage rulings both break with and derive from the competing principles of American Constitutionalism.

"Konrad has produced an exceptionally interesting and totally original book . . . a major contribution to social theory." . Marilyn Strathern, Cambridge University Based on the author's fieldwork at assisted conception clinics in England in the mid-1990s, this is the first ethnographic study of the new procreative practices of anonymous ova and embryo donation. Giving voice to both groups of women participating in the demanding donation experience - the donors on the one side and the ever-hopeful IVF recipients on the other - Konrad shows how one dimension of the new reproductive technologies involves an unfamiliar relatedness between nameless and untraceable procreative strangers. Offsetting informants' local narratives against traditional Western folk models of the 'sexed' reproductive body, the book challenges some of the basic assumptions underlying conventional biomedical discourse of altruistic donation that clinicians and others promote as "gifts of life." It brings together a wide variety of literatures from social anthropology, social theory, cultural studies of science and technology, and feminist bioethics to discuss the relationship between recent developments in biotechnology and changing conceptions of personal origins, genealogy, kinship, biological ownership and notions of bodily integrity.