The Anti-Social Family

by Michele Barrett, Mary McIntosh

Overview

Despite much talk of its decline, the nuclear family persists as a structure central to contemporary society, a fact to be lamented, according to the ideas of Michèle Barrett and Mary McIntosh. The Anti-social Family dissects the network of household, kinship and sexual relations that constitute the family form in advanced capitalist societies to show how they reinforce conditions of inequality. This classic work explores the personal and social needs that the family promises to meet but more often denies, and proposes moral and political practices for more egalitarian caring alternatives.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781781687604
Publisher:	Verso Books
Publication date:	01/27/2015
Series:	Radical Thinkers
Sold by:	Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format:	eBook
Pages:	174
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Michele Barrett is Professor of Modern Literary and Cultural Theory in the School of English and Drama, Queen Mary, University of London. She is the author, among other works, of Women’s Oppression Today. Mary McIntosh was a sociologist and feminist.

Table of Contents

Preface and Acknowledgements 7

I A Question of Values 11

II The Anti-social Family 43

III Contemporary Social Analysis 81

IV Strategies for Change 131

Postscript to Second Edition 161

Index 173

Editorial Reviews

An extremely brave, and with the benefit of hindsight, what must appear to be a very daring critique of the family.” —Sociology

From the Publisher