Footprint Books

This book’s individual entries introduce, explain and contextualise the key concepts and related debates in studying families. Definitions, summaries and key words are developed throughout with careful cross-referencing allowing students to move effortlessly between core ideas and themes.

Each entry provides:

• Clear definitions

• Lucid accounts of key issues

• Up-to-date suggestions for further reading

• Informative cross-referencing

Balanced, focused and accessible this book will provide students with an indispensible guide to the central concepts of family studies.

Introduction Attachment and Loss Biology Care Child Development Childhood / Children Comparative Approaches Conflict Theories Coupledom: Marriage / Partnership / Cohabitation Demography Division of Labour Domestic Violence and Abuse Families of Choice Family as Discourse Family Change and Continuity Family Effects Family Forms Family Law Family Lifecycle and Lifecourse Family Policies Family Practices Family Systems Fatherhood / Fathers / Fathering Feminisms Functionalism Grandparents Home Household Individualization Intimacy Kinship Motherhood / Mothers / Mothering Negotiation New Right Parenthood / Parents / Parenting Personal Phenomenological Approaches Post-Coupledom: Separation, Divorce Widowhood Power Problem Families Public and Private Rationalities Role Theory Siblings Social Divisions Socialization Transnational Families Index of sub-concepts

This is a thoughtful and sometimes challenging elaboration of some of the key concepts in contemporary family studies. In each of the forty-eight short essays, the reader will find a theoretically informed and cross-referenced guide to the major themes that have constituted this highly significant area of the social sciences. Students and researchers will want to have this book close to hand, not simply as a reference work but as a stimulus to critical social analysisDavid H J Morgan
Emeritus Professor of Sociology, University of Manchester

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Key Concepts in Family Studies is written in an intelligent, engaging, and accessible manner by two leading and highly respected family scholars whose contributions to the field over the past two decades have been path-breaking. This is an important resource for students and professionals studying, and working in, the field of family studies within and across the disciplines of sociology, social policy, social work, health studies, education, and gender studiesAndrea DoucetProfessor of Sociology
Carleton University, Canada