Changing Families

An Ethnographic Approach to Divorce and Separation

By: Bob Simpson

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Paperback | 1 August 1998 | Edition Number 1

At a Glance

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196 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
21.6 x 13.8 x 1.14

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Recent decades have seen spectacular increases in the levels of divorce and separation across the Western world. This important development is having a radical impact on the conduct and nature of family relationships. This book offers an original investigation of these critical transformations through an ethnographic analysis of post-divorce family life in Britain and provides insightful answers to vexing questions, such as:

- What cultural values and ideologies motivate and shape concerns over relationships when marriage ends?

- Which relationships continue and why?

- What cultural values underpin the financial transactions that take place or (more commonly) fail to take place after divorce?

Drawing on extensive interviews with those most affected by divorce, the author argues that the positive sentiments traditionally associated with the notion of kinship are wholly inadequate when it comes to understanding divorce, but that kinship can provide an illuminating window through which to consider the breakdown of marital relations.

This book represents a significant contribution to current debates over the changing form and expression of relationships in Western society in the late twentieth century.

Industry Reviews

'Provides a different way of thinking about what constitutes the social world of family. And it brings to the topic a rich set of insights and ideas about the very same phenomena we sociologists are working to understand.' American Journal of Sociology 'This is an insightful and important study, which should inspire scholars of the family to ponder and test in years to come.' American Ethnologist 'Simpson's analysis is shrewd and compassionate and, for me, greatly enriched by its anthropological perspective. His book would sit very comfortably on a psychologist's bookshelf as well as on that of other social scientists.' Reviewed by Rosemary Dunlop in Canberra Anthropology 'The book is an example of the valuable contributions to academic anthropology that can be gleaned from the work of anthropologists in policy related areas. The book is a contribution to kinship theory in general, not just in Britain.' Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute

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