In many parts of South-East Asia, women's lifestyles are going through enormous changes as women move from traditional rural, agricultural lifestyles to modern, urban lifestyles, which often involve migration to cities, taking on paid work, and having a quite different relationship with their families. This book, based on intensive research among the women of the Bidayuh people in Sarawak, all of them first generation migrant wage workers, explores the extent to which women's lifestyles are changing, and the reasons which prompt women to make the changes. How far are such women driven by economic considerations, how far by dissatisfaction with traditional lifestyles, and how far by the appeal of a glamorous urban lifestyle? The author's research includes detailed interviews in the field, and much of this interview material is included in the book, thereby enabling the Bidayuh women to tell their own stories as they grapple with the rapid changes swirling around them.

eBook available with sample pages: 0203221796

Recovering Origins is a healing program offered to adult children of divorced parents who now, with a certain distance from the practical difficulties that burden younger children, wrestle with the core problem at the heart of those difficulties. Having lost the community that brought them into the world, they have suffered a "primal loss." Children are the literal embodiment of that community. When it is voluntarily dismantled, and worse-wished never to have been-the effect is not negligible. Children of divorce, by their own description, are now "pulled apart" as if "between two worlds." They are "torn asunder." Paradoxically the idea for Recovering Origins was occasioned by this straight talk about divorce. For, by going to the depths of the loss of one's primal community one can be opened up to the Community that stands at the root of it. "Deep calls unto deep," as the Psalmist says. In short, Recovering Origins invites participants to move through the broken image of love that they see in their parents, to the loving Origin which is more fundamental than any human reflection of it, broken or not. Recovering Origins begins with an invitation to look honestly at the actual experience of divorce, beyond all the "happy talk" about the "good divorce." Participants are then invited to follow the path of the Lord's Prayer, to recover what is at once challenging and precious to those whose very identities are on uncertain ground: the memory of God the Father, the goodness of their lives, and the real possibility of a good future. In this way, the program offers adult children of divorce a path to healing in the deepest sense. Recovering Origins offers an occasion to encounter the Christian Faith more deeply, especially where it bears on fundamental question faced by children of divorce in a particularly dramatic way. Recovering Origins addresses adult children of divorce, then, not only as individuals in need of pastoral care, but as potential witnesses to something they can, perhaps, see more clearly: the goodness and fidelity of the One on whom their lives ultimately depend and the possibility (and need) that that be reflected in an irrevocable and fruitful love between the creatures made in his image.

What is parental control? Is it positive or negative for children? What makes parents controlling with their children, even when they value supporting children's autonomy? Are there alternatives to control and how might we apply them in important domains of children's lives, such as school and sports? This book addresses these and other questions about the meaning and predictors of parental control, as well as its consequences for children's adjustment and well-being. While the topic of parental control is not new, there has been controversy about the concept, with some researchers and clinicians weighing in on the side of control and others against it. This book argues that part of the controversy stems from different uses of the term, with some investigators focusing more on parents being in control and others on controlling children. Using a definition of control as "pressure for children to think, feel, or behave in specific ways," the author explores research on parental control, arguing that there is more consensus than previously thought. Using this research base, the author provides evidence that parental control can be subtle and can lurk within many "positive" parenting approaches; parental control undermines the very behaviors we wish to inculcate in our children; providing autonomy support--the opposite of control--is a challenge, even when parents are committed to doing so.
With controversy in the literature about parental control and attention in the media on the ways in which parents step over the control line (e.g., screaming on the soccer sidelines, pressuring children in academics), this book is especially timely. It provides an empathic view of how easily parents can become trapped in controlling styles by emphasizing performance and hooking their own self-esteem on children's performance. Examples of how this can happen in academic, sporting, and peer situations with their emphasis on competition and hierarchy are provided, as well as strategies for parenting in highly involved but autonomy supportive ways.
A highly readable yet research-based treatment of the topic of parental control, this book:
*explores the controversial topic of parental control; addresses controversy about the positive and negative effects of parental control; and disentangles various parenting concepts, such as involvement, structure, and control;
*illustrates how control can be overt, such as in the use of corporal punishment or covert, as in the use of controlling praise;
*provides evidence that control may produce compliance in children preventing them from initiating and taking responsibility for their own behavior;
*explores why parents are controlling with their children, including environmental and economic stresses and strains, characteristics of children that "pull" for control, and factors in parents' own psychologies that lead them to be "hooked" on children's performance; and
*provides examples of control in the areas of academics and sports--the hierarchical and competitive nature of these domains is seen as contributing to parents' tendencies to become controlling in these areas.

A wedding serves as the beginning marker of a marriage; if a couple is to manage cultural differences throughout their relationship, they must first pass the hurdle of designing a wedding ceremony that accommodates those differences. In this volume, author Wendy Leeds-Hurwitz documents the weddings of 112 couples from across the United States, studied over a 10-year period. She focuses on intercultural weddings--interracial, interethnic, interfaith, international, and interclass--looking at how real people are coping with cultural differences in their lives.
Through detailed case studies, the book explores how couples display different identities simultaneously. The concepts of community, ritual, identity, and meaning are given extensive consideration. Because material culture plays a particularly important role in weddings as in other examples of ritual, food, clothing, and objects are given special attention here.
Focusing on how couples design a wedding ritual to simultaneously meet multiple--and different--requirements, this book provides:
*extensive details of actual behavior by couples;
*an innovative format: six traditional theoretical chapters, with examples integrated into the discussion, are matched to six "interludes" providing detailed descriptions of the most successful examples of resolving intercultural differences;
*a methodological appendix detailing what was done and why these decisions were made; and
*a theoretical appendix outlining the study's assumptions in detail.
"Wedding as Text: Communicating Cultural Identities Through Ritual" is a distinctive study of those who have accepted cultural difference into their daily lives and how they have managed to do so successfully. As such, it is suitable for students and scholars in semiotics, intercultural communication, ritual, material culture, family communication, and family studies, and will be valuable reading for anyone facing the issue of cultural difference.

A wedding serves as the beginning marker of a marriage; if a couple is to manage cultural differences throughout their relationship, they must first pass the hurdle of designing a wedding ceremony that accommodates those differences. In this volume, author Wendy Leeds-Hurwitz documents the weddings of 112 couples from across the United States, studied over a 10-year period. She focuses on intercultural weddings--interracial, interethnic, interfaith, international, and interclass--looking at how real people are coping with cultural differences in their lives.
Through detailed case studies, the book explores how couples display different identities simultaneously. The concepts of community, ritual, identity, and meaning are given extensive consideration. Because material culture plays a particularly important role in weddings as in other examples of ritual, food, clothing, and objects are given special attention here.
Focusing on how couples design a wedding ritual to simultaneously meet multiple--and different--requirements, this book provides:
*extensive details of actual behavior by couples;
*an innovative format: six traditional theoretical chapters, with examples integrated into the discussion, are matched to six "interludes" providing detailed descriptions of the most successful examples of resolving intercultural differences;
*a methodological appendix detailing what was done and why these decisions were made; and
*a theoretical appendix outlining the study's assumptions in detail.
"Wedding as Text: Communicating Cultural Identities Through Ritual" is a distinctive study of those who have accepted cultural difference into their daily lives and how they have managed to do so successfully. As such, it is suitable for students and scholars in semiotics, intercultural communication, ritual, material culture, family communication, and family studies, and will be valuable reading for anyone facing the issue of cultural difference.

In making the argument for the remedy of inequality, contemporary political philosophers often emphasize the arbitrariness of disadvantage, stressing how one's lot in life is to a significant extent determined by the circumstances of one's birth, that is, in which family, and in what part of the world. In the latter instance, people differ in how well they live in a large part because of their context in the global order. But equally important for a person's chances in life is the family that raises her (if the person is lucky enough to have a family in the first place). In Family Values: the Ethics of Parent-Child Relationships, Harry Brighouse and Adam Swift provide a systematic analysis of the morality and politics of the family, exploring why families are valuable, whether people have a right to parent, what rights and duties parents have, and, in particular, what rights children have that may constrain the rights of their parents. The essays in this volume assess Brighouse and Swift's contribution, taking up a number of controversial issues about autonomy, human flourishing, parental rights, and indeed the nature of childhood itself. Contributors offer a range of arguments, some challenging, others complementing, of Brighouse and Swift's account of the ethics of parent-child relationships. The chapters in this book were originally published in a special issue in the Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy.

How do people communicate their romantic feelings? Gift giving is one way. Giving and receiving of gifts is a characteristic of intimate relationships. Gifts are a message, a form of communication with a tangible material object, about love, affection, or concern for the recipient. The "romantic gift" evokes a multitude of intertwined meanings: passion, intimacy, affection, persuasion, care, celebration, altruism, and nostalgia. They can also connote the negative images of obligation and reciprocity. Romantic gift giving may be practiced at rituals, during rites of passage, or for casual occasions, to affirm the continued importance of the romantic relationship. We may even romanticize the giving of gifts to the self, to nonhuman companions, and to others we do not know personally. If loving and giving are a practice, then romantic gift giving is a practice of loving with intimate-or would-be intimate-others. This book addresses gift giving among consumers attempting to express and construct romantic love. It lies at the intersection of consumption, markets, and culture. In societies shaped by the globalizing neo-liberal economic order, increasing wealth disparity, and a partially digitized social environment that they help to co-construct, it may be time to rethink romantic love. Gift giving is a key arena to do so, as gifts make love tangible and act as carriers of meaning as well as cultural symbols. In gift giving the meanings of romance are renewed, renegotiated, and reconstructed. Gifts, Romance, And Consumer Culture demonstrates a wide variety of scholarly work bearing on romantic gift giving using an interpretive consumer research perspective. The book introduces critical studies by scholars in this unfolding and new interdisciplinary field.

All too often heterosexual first-time parents are treated as the unmarked norm within research on reproduction. First-Time Parenting Journeys maps out what it means to be situated within the norm, while providing a critical account of how social norms about parenthood shape, regulate, and potentially delimit experiences of new parenthood for heterosexual couples. Based on qualitative longitudinal research, this book tells the story of journeys to parenthood, highlighting the impact of gender norms, moral claims, emotion work, and generativity. While drawing on Australian data, the critical conceptual framework has broader applicability across Western contexts in terms of understanding normative family structures and parenting practices. By focusing on expectations about, and the reality of, new parenthood, it explicates the ways in which institutionalised norms about parenthood are internalised and explores what this can tell us about the broader contours of parenthood discourses.

A fascinating collection of essays addressed the long-standing need for an exploration of marriage, love and sexuality in the Iberian Peninsula from medieval to early modern times. Subjects vary from shrew taming to wetnursing to writing and sodomy in an Inquisition trial. This collection will be an essential resource for all who seek to lean more about human history, human literature and human sexuality.

This volume contains an Open Access Chapter Currently, there are more than 36 million transnationally mobile children and youth. Featuring the stories of children and youth from places such as Myanmar, India, Hungary, the USA, and Central America, Children and Youths' Migration in a Global Landscape interrogates how transnational mobility shapes the lives of the relatively young. This edited collection addresses questions that encourage us to consider what it means to be a transnationally mobile child or youth in the 21st century. How does transnational mobility affect youths' understanding of their ethnic identity? What is the link between educational attainment and social mobility? How does social class impact the educational trajectories of return migrant children? What impact does the knowledge economy have on new norms and practices related to human capital accumulation? Illustrating that transnationally mobile children and youths' experiences need social enquiry, this book pushes all of us to question our assumptions, challenge well-established theories, and rethink our understanding of the root causes of social inequality.

The book examines the topic of paternal authority as it developed over a long period of time. The focus is on the power of fathers as manifested within a complex fabric of legal, social, economic, political and moral aspects. In early modern times, a father's power was based upon his personal and legal position as the one responsible for the family and the household in the sense of an economic unit, as well as on his moral authority over all those who belonged to said household. At the same time, the father was subject to public control, and his legal status was characterized not only by power, but also by obligations. This status was modelled after the figure of the pater familias as conceived of in Roman law-a concept that remained relevant up into the nineteenth century, though not without changes. Ultimately, the figure of the pater familias came to overlap with the modern-era perception of fathers' disempowerment. The chapters of this book analyse the public responsibility of fathers in the case of an adulterous daughter, legal acts of emancipation by which a son could gain independence from his father, and various opinions with regard to "indulgent" fathering, paternal authority over married sons, and provisions set out in wills. This book was originally published as a special issue of The History of the Family.

"Involved Fathering and Men's Adult Development" is an interdisciplinary book that synthesizes theoretical, empirical, and anecdotal writings from different fields and provides an analysis of extensive interviews with 40 fathers. Along with the exploration of the distinct contribution that fathers make to their children's development, the author pursues the parallel theme of the effect this involvement has on the fathers' own development in adulthood.
This book will provide its readers with a realistic and useful beginning point to bring a synthesis of developmental theories, family studies perspectives, and men's insights about fathering that will enhance our academic understanding of fathering and adult development. This book can also spark reflective and practical application for fathers and families, whether readers are academicians, practitioners, policymakers, or fathers in the trenches.

This book provides an original insight into how families of origin of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender (GLBT) people are involved in negotiating meanings and experiences of sexuality and intimacy, an underexplored dimension of queer family life. Delving into the perspectives of families of origin and showing the complexity and heterogeneity of the ways people with their different gender and sexual identities "do" families across generations, it contributes to querying the very distinction between families of origin and families of choice, and questions the (hetero)normative assumptions about forms and boundaries of family this distinction rests upon. A focus on marginal contexts, such as Southern Europe, and on marginal subjects, like bisexuals or black lesbians, is proposed as a way to challenge the universality of privileged narratives within heteronormativity, homonormativity and anglocentrism, and to reveal unexpected resources families of origin mobilise to make sense of GLBT identities and lived experiences. The book poses a crucial question: how can alliances along family ties develop on the basis of shared stories of family diversity and marginalised identities, rather than of loving (and normative) support to GLBT people in need and an advocacy in their name from a position of heterosexual privilege? This book was originally published in Journal of GLBT Family Studies.

Marriage is a site of political conflict. It is a controversial issue in the UK, Australia and the US where there is a clash of values between neoliberal governments and diverse groups either strongly opposing or supporting marriage. In the meantime, fewer couples are marrying, while other family forms are more widely accepted. This book explores this disconnect by examining policy issues such as class divides, ethnicity, religion, same-sex marriage, gender relations and romantic expectations. A top down approach explores different government policy responses to marriage. In all three countries, there are differences and similarities in how governments react to the changes in family formations, but values or 'conceptions of the desirable' play a significant role. Enhancing stability and commitment as well as personal responsibility are important for policymakers who aim to keep 'the family' intact and thereby lower the burden on the public purse. It is difficult for political actors to respond to conflicting and changing values surrounding the diversity in relationships or to translate them into policies. There is a strong case to be made for increased policy attention to adult relationships - and a much weaker case for marriage. Rich evidence is drawn from interviews with key stakeholders as well as politicians' speeches, government departmental reports, stakeholders' documents and responses to government policies, and media articles.

Originally published in 1953, this study examines the effect of social change on African domestic organization and marriage. Changes to African social organization due to increased contact with the West are analyzed and accounts given as to how these changes were handled by various administrations and missionaries. The volume is contributed to by lawyers, missionaries, anthropologists and sociologists from Africa, Europe and the USA.

This issue consists of five articles profiling different aspects of the national evaluation of the Comprehensive Community Mental Health Services for Children and Their Families Program. Over the last eight years, this program provided grants to develop community-based systems of care for children with serious emotional disturbance and their families. A comprehensive, multilevel evaluation has been conducted that has provided information to local grantee communities and the federal government on the implementation and effectiveness of systems of care. Touching on a range of questions that the evaluation is designed to address, the articles in this special issue provide more general information on the system-of-care approach to addressing children's mental health problems.

This book examines the use of violence by children and young people in family settings and proposes specialised and age-appropriate responses to these children and young people It interrogates the adequacy and effectiveness of current service and justice system responses, including analysis of police, court and specialist service responses. It proposes new approaches to children and young people who use violence that are evidence based, non-punitive, and informed by an understanding of the complexity of needs and the importance of age appropriate service responses. Bringing together a range of Australian and International experts, it sheds new light on questions such as: How can we best understand and respond to the use of family violence by young people? To what extent do traditional family violence responses address the experiences of adolescents who use violence in family settings? What barriers to help seeking exist for parental and sibling victims of adolescent family violence? To what degree do existing support and justice services provide adequate responses to those using adolescent family violence and their families? In what circumstances do children kill their biological and adopted parents? The explicit focus on child and adolescent family violence produces new knowledge in the area of family violence, which will be of relevance to academics, policy makers and family violence practitioners in Australia and internationally.

The growing use of illicit drugs among women has become a major concern for health professionals and social services. The reluctance of drug-using women to seek help from drug agencies and to disclose their use of drugs to ante-natal, midwifery and social services is now officially recognised by government agencies. However, devising an appropriate strategy that will overcome these fears will not be easy without a better understanding of their causes and effects.
Drug Misuse and Motherhood gives drug-using mothers a voice. Based on longitudinal research and in-depth interviews it provides new insights and much-needed information in five key areas:
* family life
* pregnancy
* motherhood
* service delivery and development
* implications for policy.
The user-perspective of this book is balanced by the professional viewpoint on the same issues. It offers a unique source of data for researchers and fresh inspiration for practitioners working in the field.

In recent years, first feminist considerations, and now concerns with HIV/Aids have led to new approaches to the study of sexuality. The experience of puberty, explorations with sexuality and courtship, and the pressure to reproduce are a few of the human tensions central to this volume.

By regarding children as actors and conducting empirical research on children's agency, Childhood Studies have gained significant influence on a wide range of different academic disciplines. This has made agency one of the key concepts of Childhood Studies, with articles on the subject featured in handbooks and encyclopaedias. Reconceptualising Agency and Childhood is the first collection devoted to the central concept of agency in Childhood Studies. With contributions from experts in the field, the chapters cover theoretical, practical, historical, transnational and institutional dimensions of agency, rekindling discussion and introducing fundamental and contemporary sociological perspectives to the field of research. Particular attention is paid to connecting agency in the social sciences with Childhood Studies, considering both the theoretical foundations and the practice of research into agency. Empirical case studies are also explored, which focus upon child protection, schools and childcare at a variety of institutions worldwide. This book is an essential reference for students and scholars of Childhood Studies, and is also relevant to Sociology, Social Work, Education, Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) and Geography.

How do racialized migrant mothers contest hegemonic racialized formations of citizenship? Bringing together leading scholars from international and multi-disciplinary perspectives, this book shows how migrant mothers realise and problematise their role in bringing up future citizens in modern societies, increasingly characterised by racial, ethnic, religious, cultural and social diversity. The book stimulates critical thinking on how migrant mothers creatively intervene into citizenship by reworking its racialized meanings and creating new, racially plural practices and challenging boundaries. The contributions explore the processes that shape migrant mothers' cultural and caring work in enabling their children to occupy a place as future citizens despite and against their racialized subordination. The book contributes to disciplinary fields of politics, sociology, anthropology, psychoanalysis, participatory arts practice and theory, geography, queer and gender studies, looking at the thematic areas of participatory arts, family forms, social activism, and education in the US, Canada, the UK, France, Portugal. These cross-cultural and disciplinary perspectives contribute to the exciting emergence of a distinctive field of research engaging with pressing intellectual and social issues of how ideas and practices of citizenship develop in the face of increasing spatial mobility and across boundaries of generation and ethnicity, in the process requiring new, creative interventions into how we think about and do citizenship. This book was originally published as a special issue of Ethnic and Racial Studies.

Published in 1998, this work is concerned, in the main, with reproduction - for which marriage is not an essential prerequisite. Nevertheless, much of sexuality and the greater part of parenthood still subsist within the marital relationship. Sex and marriage are interdependent - indeed the definition of the latter depends on the former. After looking at the prerequisites for marriage and for making a marriage void, the author shows that the medico-legal interests of marriage relate to the mental health and the sex of the parties. The author also looks at various aspects of the sexual-familial relationship, including contraception, sterilization, abortion, protection of the foetus, foetal experimentation, the infertile husband, the infertile woman, defective neonates and infants, consent to treatment and research in children, the protection of young children and the killing of children within the family. Cases are used to highlight the legal aspects of these subjects.

bThe growing use of illicit drugs among women has become a major concern for health professionals and social services. The reluctance of drug-using women to seek help from drug agencies and to disclose their use of drugs to ante-natal, midwifery and social services is now officially recognised by government agencies. However, devising an appropriate strategy that will overcome these fears will not be easy without a better understanding of their causes and effects.
Drug Misuse and Motherhood gives drug-using mothers a voice. Based on longitudinal research and in-depth interviews it provides new insights and much-needed information in five key areas:
* family life
* pregnancy
* motherhood
* service delivery and development
* implications for policy.
The user-perspective of this book is balanced by the professional viewpoint on the same issues. It offers a unique source of data for researchers and fresh inspiration for practitioners working in the field.

eBook available with sample pages: PB:0415271959 EB:0203166396

Based on extensive interviews with young people between the ages of 18 and 30 in six countries across Europe, this source shows how rapid global economic and employment change, together with shifts in family structure and the gendering of work and home life, shape young people's orientations to work, the family and their combination.
It looks at young people in a range of socio-economic groups and at various points in the world of work, from the unemployed through those in education or training, to those with steady jobs.

eBook available with sample pages: 0203471857

"Adoption, Race, and Identity" is a long-range study of the impact of interracial adoption on those adopted and their families. Initiated in 1972, it was continued in 1979, 1984, and 1991. Cumulatively, these four phases trace the subjects from early childhood into young adulthood. This is the only extended study of this controversial subject.

Simon and Altstein provide a broad perspective of the impact of transracial adoption and include profiles of the families involved in the study. They explore and compare the experiences of both the parents and the children. They identify families whose adoption experiences were problematic and those whose experiences were positive. Finally, the study looks at the insights the experience of transracial adoption brought to the adoptive parents and what advice they would pass on to future parents adopting children from different racial backgrounds. They include the reflections of those adopted included in the 1972 first phase, who are now adults themselves.

This second edition includes a new concluding chapter that updates the fourth and last phase of the study. The authors were able to locate 88 of the 96 families who participated in the 1984 study. Bringing together all four phases of this twenty-year study into one volume gives the reader a richer and deeper understanding of what the experience of transracial adoption has meant for the parents, the adoptees, and children born into the families studied. This landmark work, will be of compelling interest to social workers, policy makers, and professionals and families involved on all sides of interracial adoption.