Dr Ursula Henz STC S100B

This course is available on the BSc in Sociology. This course is available as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit and to General Course students.

The course provides an overview over the area of family sociology, drawing predominantly on literature about Britain and other Western societies. The course focuses on recent and ongoing transformations of families, family relationships and family life. Throughout the course various theoretical approaches will be considered. Issues related to gender, ethnicity and migration will be cross-cutting themes of the course. Indicative topics are: family structures and family relationships; childhood, adolescence, partnership formation, childlessness, motherhood, fatherhood, divorce, post-divorce families, intergenerational ties, family violence, family and work, family and social inequality.

10 hours of lectures and 9 hours of classes in the MT. 10 hours of lectures and 10 hours of classes in the LT. 2 hours of classes in the ST.

Reading weeks: week 6 MT and week 6 LT.

At least one class presentation and two formative essays (1,500 words each).

Scott, Jacqueline, Treas, Judith & Richards, Martin (eds) (2004): The Blackwell Companion to the Sociology of Families, Oxford: Blackwell covers many aspects of the course. Other recommended readings include: Beck, Ulrich & Beck-Gernsheim, Elisabeth (1995): The Normal Chaos of Love. London: Polity Press. Chambers, Deborah (2012): A Sociology of Family Life. Cambridge: Polity Press. Giddens, Anthony (1992): The Transformation of Intimacy. Sexuality, Love and Eroticism in Modern Societies. Oxford : Polity Press. Hochschild, Arlie (1990): The Second Shift. Working Parents and the Revolution at Home. London: Piatkus. Jamieson, Lynn (1998): Intimacy: Personal Relationships in Modern Societies. Cambridge: Polity Press. Lareau, Annette (2011): Unequal Childhoods. Class, Race and Family Life. University of California Press: Berkeley, Los Angeles, London. Smart, Carol & Neale, Bren (1999): Family Fragments? Cambridge: Polity Press. Smart, Carol, Neale, Bren & Wade, Amanda (2001): The Changing Experience of Childhood: Families and Divorce. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Essay (50%, 2500 words) and project (50%, 3500 words) in the ST.

Two hard copies of the assessed essay and the research report, with submission sheets attached to each, to be handed in to the Administration Office, S116, no later than 16:30 on the first Wednesday of Summer Term and the fourth Wednesday of Summer Term, respectively. An additional copy to be uploaded to Moodle no later than 18:00 on the same day.