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Postmodernism and Family Theory

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Handbook of Marriage and the Family

Abstract

This chapter describes emerging developments in family theory in the last decade of the twentieth century. This task is at once easier and more difficult because it follows the 1993 publication of the comprehensive Sourcebook of Family Theories and Methods: A Contextual Approach (Boss, Doherty, LaRossa, Schumm, and Steinmetz, 1993). It is easier to catalog emerging theories about the family because a major section of the Sourcebook was devoted to newly emerging theories. But it is more difficult to say something new about the specific emerging theories that were covered in depth: phenomenology, feminism, biosocial, and race and ethnicity theories. Furthermore, the opening chapter of the Sourcebook put these emerging theories into the contexts of prior theories, developments in philosophy of science, and larger social and cultural developments (Doherty, Boss, LaRossa, Schumm, and Steinmetz, 1993).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Family Social Science Department, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, Minnesota, 55108, USA

    William J. Doherty

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  1. William J. Doherty
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Union Institute, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA

    Marvin B. Sussman

  2. Department of Sociology, Indiana University — Purdue University at Indianapolis, 46236, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA

    Suzanne K. Steinmetz

  3. Department of Sociology, Arizona State University, 85287-2502, Tempe, Arizona, USA

    Gary W. Peterson

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Doherty, W.J. (1999). Postmodernism and Family Theory. In: Sussman, M.B., Steinmetz, S.K., Peterson, G.W. (eds) Handbook of Marriage and the Family. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-5367-7_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-5367-7_9

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4757-5369-1

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