Suchergebnisse

This paper examines the domestic labour arrangements of cohabiting couples and the implications for gender equality. The discussion is based on a predominantly qualitative study of thirty young cohabiters. The men and women shared domestic labour in diverse ways but not equally, instead they used discursive strategies to avoid assessing whether their contributions were equal. The cohabiters expressed extremely egalitarian attitudes when asked general questions about society but equality is absent when they discuss their own relationships. I argue that the concept of equality is part of public discourse rather than a fundamental principle of cohabiting relationships.

This book explores contemporary families as sites of consumption, examining the changing contexts of family life, where new forms of family are altering how family life is practised and produced, and addressing key social issues - childhood obesity, alchohol and drug addiction, social networking, viral marketing - that put pressure on families as the social, economic and regulatory environments of consumption change

Surnaming practices are a case study of change and continuity in patrilineal conventions in families and also alert us to the challenges of negotiating familial identities in an era of family diversity. Using data from two Australian sources, 430,753 Victorian birth registrations and 43 in-depth interviews with heterosexual and lesbian parents, we explore continuity and breaks with convention in surnaming children. For married and unmarried heterosexual couples, the dominant surnaming practice was for children to take their father's name. By contrast, several surnaming strategies were more popular among lesbian couples including: using hyphenated or double-barrelled surnames, using the birth or non-birth mother's surname or creating a new name for the family. Despite these differences, we contend that through their surnaming decisions both lesbian and heterosexual couples are concerned with displaying the legitimacy of their parental relationships to extended family and institutional audiences. For unmarried heterosexual couples, surnames display 'intact' families and paternal commitment whereas for lesbian couples the legitimacy concern is the recognition of the same-sex couple as parents.

Contemporary universities in Western democracies are renowned for heavy drinking youth cultures. In this context, abstinence is 'accountable' behaviour that requires justification. Some previous research has reported accounts of why young people choose not to drink and the social consequences, but there is limited research on how they achieve abstinence in a heavy drinking culture. Drawing on Heller's notion of choosing oneself and Giddens' concept of reflexive choice making, we show how young non-drinking Australian university students emphasize abstinence as an individual lifestyle choice, show determined strength in their decision not to drink and report eventual acceptance from their peers. The non-drinkers in our research use some similar accounts noted in other research such as 'being sporty' or 'focused on their studies', yet they do not position themselves as part of an alternative subculture such as those in straight edge or religious groups. They choose their abstinent selves both in an existential sense and as an act of everyday self-identity. We argue that the choice of abstinence needs to be viewed as a part of a positive claim to identity, alongside other alternative ways of being for university students.

AbstractObjectiveThis study contributes in‐depth knowledge about informal childcare and family processes in East Asian families in Hong Kong in a time of rapid economic and social development. We explore how families negotiate grandparent childcare and how parents and grandparents manage intergenerational tensions and conflict.BackgroundThe common way of understanding intergenerational relationships in childcare is to focus on the positive experience of taking care of grandchildren, but there is limited discussion on the tension and conflicts that also occur between the generations.MethodThis qualitative study is based on in‐depth interviews with 14 parents and 12 grandparents about childcare arrangements for 53 children within East Asian families in Hong Kong.ResultsTensions are found among the parents and grandparents in childcare provision, and considerable negotiation and ongoing emotional management of relationships is required.ConclusionGrandparent childcare is an important resource for many families, but it might not suit all. The issues of autonomy, seniority, power, respect, and different expectations of care are embedded in established family dynamics. Some intergenerational problems are unable to be settled by the family members.ImplicationsGrandparent childcare should be a care option provided for families with young children. However, it should not be a substitute for childcare services and supports outside the home. Professional family services also should be sensitive to intergenerational family dynamics.

Plastic reduction policies are important for addressing plastic pollution however, the success of such policies relies on establishing new social norms. This study advances knowledge on public expressions of social norms by exploring the interplay between news media and social media in response to a new environmental policy. It is the first study to explore this phenomenon with the explicit aim of identifying and comparing information related to social norms. A content analysis was conducted in relation to the 2018 Australian supermarket plastic bag ban. Results demonstrate how social norms related to a new policy are created, reinforced and expressed in the contemporary media landscape. The interaction between news media and social media offers a window into public expressions of social norms, where social media provides a platform for civic participation in a public and real-time environment in which users can challenge the dominant narrative presented by the news media.

AbstractPlastic pollution is a critical global sustainability challenge, but the social norms associated with single‐use plastics are changing. These new norms could be encouraging consumer behaviour change by highlighting which behaviours are common and acceptable. This paper explores the role of social norms in predicting plastic avoidance, using the theory of normative social behaviour (TNSB). A representative survey (n = 1,001) was conducted measuring consumer behaviour in relation to four single‐use plastic items (bags, straws, coffee cups, and take‐away containers). Descriptive norms were found to be the strongest predictor of plastic avoidance and most of the remaining variables moderated the norm‐behaviour relationship. However, the relative importance of each variable differed depending on the specific item and behaviour. These findings indicate that there is an opportunity to use social norm messaging to close the perception‐action gap among consumers in order to address a global sustainability problem.

Work life, family life and care are all being substantially re-shaped in Australia as in other post-industrial societies. Concern about work/life balance has increased as domestic gender relations slowly change, the breadwinner/homemaker model becomes less dominant and families undertake more demanding and flexible modes of employment and care. Using data from a qualitative study of nurses and their families this paper explores how families are managing the contemporary intersection of flexible family life and flexible labour. Family values emerged as an important mediating factor in the organisation of work and care. The couples valued parental care and time with children and used shift work to enable family life. We argue that just as the breadwinner model is being modified in Australia so too is the maternalist culture of care. In most of the families in the study the women are important but secondary breadwinners and the men are important but secondary carers.

This pilot study of child protection case conferences in a region of Melbourne highlights the dynamics of inter-organisational and inter–professional interaction. Data from direct observation of a small number of case conferences and focussed interviews with participants before and after each case conference, in addition to an interviewer administered questionnaire with professionals from agencies regularly participating in case conferences was analysed using manual and computerised methods. The findings relate to: parental attendance; interagency and interprofessional dynamics: case assessment focus; and worker anxiety about conflict. The management of conflict, the tension between the different purposes of case conferences, and the importance of the quality of leadership in case conferences, are discussed.

This study uses the 'family time economies' concept for a nuanced investigation of family work-care experiences in 20 Australian nursing families. The family time economy captures information on the management and coordination of work and care responsibilities in families. Our study investigates how nurses were utilizing nursing flexibility to support time for caring for their families. We report on couple interview research which offered important insights into how shift work and family time are described and negotiated between partners caring for children. The study shows that the complex work schedules generated by shift work are reflected in domestic life, as nurses and their partners use available employment flexibility to ensure they have time for family care. The 'taylorized' allotment of time within the family competed with the desire to make, and preserve, free and unstructured family time, reflecting the incursion of, and resistance to, industrial temporalities in the familial sphere.

This article explores the nature of domestic labour involved in sustainability transitions at the household level, with waste reduction as an exemplar. We draw on national survey data (N = 2717) from Australia, and qualitative data from a participatory action project working with 34 householders on experiments in low waste living. We found low waste living was challenging work mentally, physically and interpersonally and required information, skills and the resources of time and money. Waste reduction in households also required relational labour inside and outside the household. On the basis of existing literature and our findings we theorise that sustainability labour is comprised of five overlapping elements: physical, cognitive, relational, economic and political tasks. We argue that reducing waste is an example of sustainability labour that is led largely by women, as they work to change household practices and the systems in which these are embedded, towards a more sustainable future.