Suchergebnisse

This article interrogates how parents manage public–private practices of father–child intimacy and how the dis/embodied male impacts on the display of nudity in families. Drawing on empirical research, it examines some of the tensions which crystallise around intimate fatherhood and the meanings and practices of family photography. Focusing on the visual and how this can shed light on different dimensions of everyday experience, it explores how parents set boundaries around notions of decency and adjudge appropriate behaviour, with particular attention to the (in)significance of children's age and the impact of class and social context. Notwithstanding cultural changes which prize intimate fatherhood, the management of masculinity and the paternal body remain a source of anxiety. This article interrogates how gender and ideas of 'risk management' are shaping embodied interactions between fathers and children and thus what children are learning about men, masculinity and intimacy.

Contemporary research has shown that families are constituted through everyday practices of intimacy with affinities being fashioned around the structuring principles of openness and reciprocity alongside or superseding traditional ties of obligation and responsibility. Paradoxically in many instances powerful differences and inequalities among intimates remain intransigent, undermining claims on the democratisation of intimacy. In this article I want to examine how people make sense of difference and significant otherness in family lives, focusing attention on embedded practices that span across interpersonal, human-object, natural-cultural boundaries. I focus on three examples; these are relations between humans and animals, parents and children, people and objects. These relations are structured through species, gendered, generational and subject-object differences, but these categorical distinctions do not set apart the self and other. Instead they demonstrate how otherness is part of everyday relational living. Thus, to put personal relationships and families in context, I contend that we need to reframe the analytical lens around an ethics of otherness.

This article interrogates the shifting ethical contours of research on contemporary childhood and family living. I reflect on increases in ethical regulation and the role of ethics review panels. Drawing on original data from empirical research I examine some of the ethical issues that arise in studies of family life with particular attention to qualitative mixed methods research and the use of psychosocial approaches. I propose that multilayered in-depth approaches require us to consider carefully ethical standpoints, affecting how we thread together individual and/or family case studies. Unsettling stories in research on emotional—social worlds refine our understandings of 'harm' and 'distress' and reconfigure ideas of 'responsible knowing'. Qualitative mixed methods research situates 'messy', conflicting and unfavourable data as part of ordinary parenthood, reformulating ethical and epistemological dilemmas for researchers of personal lives.

In this article I examine how parental identities are negotiated in lesbian parent families. I argue that lesbian mothers' extraordinary maternity is not dependent on a feminist egalitarian ethic but instead comes from families' strategic articulation of same-sex parenthood, whereby gender is done and undone in multiple and contradictory ways. Focusing attention onto the 'other (non-biological) mother', I suggest that her lack of social status and (progenitor) maternal role disrupts simple readings of gendered parenthood. I demonstrate that children's creative familial-linguistic management of 'family' facilitates an inclusive conceptual framework, representing families as process. The data cited in this article comes from in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 18 lesbian mothers and 13 of their children, who live across the Yorkshire region in the UK.

Intro -- Foreword -- References -- Preface -- Politics and policy -- Relationship trends and experiences -- Research impact and the dissemination of findings -- References -- Series Editors' Preface -- Acknowledgements -- Contents -- List of Figures -- List of Tables -- 1: Introduction -- Researching couple relationships -- Demographic and policy contexts -- Academic contexts -- Socio-cultural contexts -- Couple practices -- The book -- Notes -- References -- 2: Relationship Work -- Gifts and thoughtful gestures -- Household chores and childcare -- Cooking -- Couple time -- Home comforts -- Notes -- References -- 3: Communication -- Talking and listening -- Relating to each other -- Online and off-track -- Deep knowing, beyond words -- Differences, arguments and reflexive bickering -- Laughter, humour and banter -- The relations of love and loving relations -- Notes -- References -- 4: Sex and Intimacy -- Engendering intimacy -- The in/significance of sex -- Sex and parenting -- Making space for intimacy -- Ageing bodies and relationship duration -- Notes -- References -- 5: Unsettling Coupledom -- Parenting -- Pets -- Cultural difference -- Non-monogamies -- Friends -- Couple display -- Notes -- References -- 6: Conclusion -- Time and the mundane nature of relationship work -- The meanings of love in contemporary times -- Communication and the importance of home -- Conclusion -- References -- Appendix 1: Researching Couples' Long- Term Relationships -- Researching couples' long-term relationships -- Online survey -- Qualitative design and methods -- Appendix 2: Tables -- Bibliography -- Index.

Couple Relationships in the 21st Century presents an incisive and engaging account of love, intimacy and personal life in contemporary Western society. The authors draw on rich qualitative and large-scale survey data to explore how couples communicate with each other, negotiate the pressures and pleasures of parenthood, and the vagaries of sexual desire and intimacy across life course. Focusing on 'the everyday', this book unpicks the ordinary and often mundane relationship work that goes into sustaining a relationship over time, breaking down the dichotomy between enduring relationships of quality and good enough or endured relationships. It contests the separation of couples into distinct relationship types defined through age, parenthood or sexuality. Looking through the lens of relationship practices it is clear that there is no 'normal couple': couples are what couples do. Providing an invaluable critical insight on contemporary experiences of coupledom, this book will be essential reading for scholars and students, clinicians working in couple and family therapy, or those simply interested in couple relationships and how they work.

Everyday moments and ordinary gestures create the texture of long-term couple relationships. In this article we demonstrate how, by refining our research tools and conceptual imagination, we can better understand these vibrant and visceral relationships. The 'moments approach' that we propose provides a lens through which to focus in on couples' everyday experiences, to gain insight on processes, meanings and cross-cutting analytical themes whilst ensuring that feelings and emotionality remain firmly attached. Calling attention to everyday relationship practices, we draw on empirical research to illustrate and advance our conceptual and methodological argument. The Enduring Love? study included an online survey ( n = 5445) and multi-sensory qualitative research with couples ( n = 50) to interrogate how they experience, understand and sustain their long-term relationships.