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Introduction 1. Proper Families? Cultural Expectations and Donor Conception 2. Uncharted Territories: Donor Conception in Personal Life 3. Ripples Through the Family 4. Keeping it Close: Sensitivities and Secrecy 5. Opening Up: Negotiating Disclosure 6. Donors: Strangers, Boundaries and Tantalising Knowledge 7. (Not) One of Us: Genes and Belonging in Family Life 8. Relative Strangers and the Paradoxes of Genetic Kinship

Storytelling is a fundamental part of human interaction; it is also deeply social and political in nature. In this article, I explore reproductive storytelling as a phenomenon of sociological consequence. I do so in the context of donor conception, which used to be managed through secrecy but where children are now perceived 'to have the right' to know about their genetic origins. I draw on original qualitative data with families of donor conceived children, and bringing my data into conversation with social script theory and the concept of relationality, I investigate the disjuncture between the value now placed on openness and storytelling, and the absence of an existing social script by which to do so. I show the nuanced ways in which this absence plays out on relational playing-fields, within multidimensional, intergenerational relationships. I suggest that in order to understand sociologically the significance and process of reproductive storytelling, it is vital to keep both the role of social scripts, and embedded relationality, firmly in view.

From SAGE Publishing via Jisc Publications Router ; History: received 2019-12, accepted 2020-10, epub 2021-01-12 ; Publication status: Published ; Funder: Economic and Social Research Council; FundRef: https://doi.org/10.13039/501100000269; Grant(s): ES/I004890/1 ; Storytelling is a fundamental part of human interaction; it is also deeply social and political in nature. In this article, I explore reproductive storytelling as a phenomenon of sociological consequence. I do so in the context of donor conception, which used to be managed through secrecy but where children are now perceived 'to have the right' to know about their genetic origins. I draw on original qualitative data with families of donor conceived children, and bringing my data into conversation with social script theory and the concept of relationality, I investigate the disjuncture between the value now placed on openness and storytelling, and the absence of an existing social script by which to do so. I show the nuanced ways in which this absence plays out on relational playing-fields, within multidimensional, intergenerational relationships. I suggest that in order to understand sociologically the significance and process of reproductive storytelling, it is vital to keep both the role of social scripts, and embedded relationality, firmly in view.

This article investigates the relationship between grandparents and lesbian daughters in the context of childbirth, looking specifically at the role that pregnancy plays in shaping kinship affinities. Gender, sex, and heterosexuality are fundamental to Euro-American kinship discourse and practice; lesbian couples' parenthood through donor conception represents a significant departure from prevailing tropes of kinship. Thus, questions arise about how lesbians experience becoming and being parents, and about how their own parents may respond to becoming a genetic or nongenetic grandparent. This article draws on original data from interviews conducted in the United Kingdom with lesbians who became parents by donor conception, and grandparents with lesbian daughters in those situations where the older generation was not originally supportive of their daughters. It explores the negotiated meaning of pregnancy and how relationships with grandparents may be shaped by whether or not it is the daughter of the family who gave birth.

The meaning of kinship received little sustained attention for some time in British sociology. However, we are now beginning to see a shift, and Jennifer Mason's (2008) conceptualisation of kinship affinities makes an important contribution to emerging debates. In this article I seek to add to such debates and also provide original data from the field of donor conception and lesbian motherhood, a particularly rich field in which to explore the meaning of kin. I investigate stories about becoming parents, and demonstrate that the issue of bringing kinship into being is a key concern in that process. I develop the argument that kinship is a multilayered and malleable resource with an exceptional capacity to encompass difference. This leads me to suggest that we need to be sensitive to the multitude, shifting ways in which connectedness is experienced in personal life.

Family resemblances and connectedness constitute a recent interest in sociological debate. This article seeks to build on and expand this debate by empirically exploring the meaning of physical family resemblances in the context of lesbian donor conception. This constitutes a neglected area as previous studies primarily explore gamete donation and physical resemblances in the context of heterosexual assisted conception. Considerably less attention has been paid to the specific dynamics inherent to lesbian donor conception. The article draws on a qualitative study comprising 25 lesbian couples in England and Wales with experiences of pursuing both self-arranged and clinical donor conception in the context of a lesbian couple relationship. Building on work in the area of kin, connectedness and family resemblance, this article argues that seeking resemblances can be as much about creating distance as connectedness in the context of lesbian couple donor conception.

Family resemblances and connectedness constitute a recent interest in sociological debate. This article seeks to build on and expand this debate by empirically exploring the meaning of physical family resemblances in the context of lesbian donor conception. This constitutes a neglected area as previous studies primarily explore gamete donation and physical resemblances in the context of heterosexual assisted conception. Considerably less attention has been paid to the specific dynamics inherent to lesbian donor conception. The article draws on a qualitative study comprising 25 lesbian couples in England and Wales with experiences of pursuing both self-arranged and clinical donor conception in the context of a lesbian couple relationship. Building on work in the area of kin, connectedness and family resemblance, this article argues that seeking resemblances can be as much about creating distance as connectedness in the context of lesbian couple donor conception. © The Author(s) 2010.

Reproductive technologies, such as self-arranged donor conception, clinical donor insemination and in vitro fertilization, now have an established place in lesbian reproductive practices, providing a route to conception which separates reproduction from heterosexual intercourse. This article explores how lesbian reproduction figures within feminist studies of reproductive technologies. It critically engages with representations of reproduction and structures of sexuality in early and more recent feminist studies of reproductive technologies. Specifically, the article investigates constructions of reproduction, technology and sexuality in key ethnographic studies by Sarah Franklin, Charis Thompson and Rayna Rapp. The findings suggest that heterosexuality is foundational to, and yet invisible within, this feminist research into reproductive technologies. Endorsing Chrys Ingraham's concept of a `heterosexual imaginary', I argue that this research reproduces a heterosexual imaginary of procreation, continuously representing conception as heterosexual despite the separation of conception and heterosexual sex realizable through reproductive technology. It effectively renders lesbian reproduction inconceivable.

Drawing on interviews with donors, their kin and fertility counsellors, the authors discuss what donation stories can tell us about contemporary understandings of connectedness, time and morality in the context of reproduction and family life, and consider how reproductive 'openness' might be done differently.

Cover -- Contents -- List of Tables, Figures, and Boxes -- Notes on the contributors -- 1 Introducing a Sociology of Personal Life -- What is 'personal life'? -- What is sociological about personal life? -- Some illustrations of personal life in sociology -- The 'personal' is relational -- Personal life is socially constructed -- The chapters -- 2 Conceptualising the Personal -- Introduction -- The 'social construction' of 'the personal' -- Persons and selves -- Personal practices -- Social distinctions and inequalities -- Concluding remarks -- 3 Couple Relationships -- Introduction -- Gender, sexuality and intimate life -- 'Doing' couple relationships -- To what extent have couple relationships changed? -- Concluding remarks -- 4 Kinship: How Being Related Matters in Personal Life -- Introduction -- What does it mean to be related? -- Kinship in everyday life -- Is kinship a special connection between people? -- New technologies, new families, new kinship -- Concluding remarks -- 5 Friendship and Personal Life -- Introduction -- What is a friend? -- Friendship and technology -- Social change and the significance of friendship -- The social patterning of friendship and the limits of choice -- Friendship as the ideal relationship? -- Concluding remarks: Friends versus family? -- 6 Material Cultures -- Introduction -- What is material culture and how can we understand it? -- Material practices: Keeping, using, sorting, and disposing -- Love and loss -- Personal and global connections -- Concluding remarks -- 7 Personal Life across the Life Course -- Introduction -- The life course: Stages and transitions -- Temporal scripts -- Personal life and the life course -- Childhood -- Adulthood -- Later life -- Concluding remarks -- 8 Consumer Culture -- Introduction -- The emergence of consumer culture -- Consumer culture: The corrosion of personal life.

With reproductive medical technologies becoming more accessible, assisted donor conception is raising new and important questions about family life. Using in-depth interviews the authors explore the lived reality of donor conception and offer insights into the complexities of these new family relationships

Legal and social attitudes towards gay men and lesbians have altered considerably in latter years and yet recent research suggests that 'coming out' as lesbian and gay may remain a troubled business, especially in one's own family. Exploring this theme, we situate gay and lesbian identities in wider family networks and explore how gay men and women negotiate family relationships at particular and significant moments in their lives, such as weddings and childbirth. In doing so, we draw together three qualitative datasets: the Mass Observation Project and two interview studies exploring same-sex commitment ceremonies and lesbian motherhood, all conducted in Britain in the 2000s. We investigate how hostility in families may shape the 'coming out' process and also how a culture of silence plays an important role in maintaining family relationships. We suggest that to understand what it means to 'come out', we need to examine the meaning of non-heterosexuality in the context of kin relationality and situate gay and lesbian lives in webs of intergenerational relationships.