O rodzinie współczesnej i jej kształtowaniu słów kilka
The Family, Families, Post-family, and the Sense of Family

Author(s): Iwona Taranowicz
Subject(s): Sociology
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: definitions of the family; reproductive decision; self-control; intimate relationship; parenthood
Summary/Abstract: The multitude of forms of intimate and family relationships requires not only posing a question what constitutes the family, but also calls the term “family” into question. This article discusses the socio-economic conditions that accompany the decision to start a family, indicating the importance of the variability of social control centres in this process. Self-control is the main form of social control in contemporary society. The reproductive decision is subjected to strong pressures: to provide children with good economic and cultural capital on the one hand, and, to create emotional fulfilling partnership on the other. Doing both, simultaneously, is not easy. Not every person will have sufficient resources to cope with these pressures. Nevertheless, people will attempt to do so, and in making their attempts, create different kinds of intimate relations. The patterns of these relations will coincide with structural divisions. Whether we can define one concept to describe and involve all of these relations, remains open to debate.

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