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Changing Families and Regulating Change in Family Life

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Divorce, Families and Emotion Work

Part of the book series: Palgrave Macmillan Studies in Family and Intimate Life ((PSFL))

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Abstract

‘Marriage falls out of favour for young Europeans as austerity and apathy bite’, reads the headline of an article in The Guardian in 2014 concerning the changes in marriage rates across Europe. Citing a series of experts across a range of EU states, the journalist argues that the behaviour of people in relation to birth, marriage and family formation has changed in response to economic, social and cultural changes. The interviewees expressed several explicit reasons for retreating from marriage. For some it was because of economic problems owing to the lack of stable jobs and increased living costs, especially housing; for some it was the changing significance of marriage as a life goal, with commitment established through parenthood rather than marriage; while for others it was an outright rejection of the state intervening in personal lives and prioritising one form of partnership over others. The interviewees all agreed that the decision not to marry was as much about changing values as about financial difficulties.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/jul/25/marriage-young-europeans-austerity (accessed 19 January 2016).

  2. 2.

    A review of family–work policies lies outside the scope of this book. For more details, see Daly, M. (2002) Contemporary Family Policy: A Comparative Review of Ireland, France Germany, Sweden and the UK. Dublin: Institute of Public Administration, the Department of Social and Family Affairs.

  3. 3.

    For a detailed review of the legal context of separation and divorce in Ireland, see Mahon, E. and Moore, E. (2011) Post Separation Parenting: A Study of Separation and Divorce Agreements Made in the Family Law Circuit Courts of Ireland and Their Implications for Parent–Child Contact and Family Lives. Report to the Office of Minister for Children, Dublin.

  4. 4.

    Although a court, in the context of a divorce application, will look at all of the circumstances of a case, including any earlier settlement or court order, it must have regard to the respective financial positions of the parties as at the date of the hearing of the divorce application and not as at the date of a separation agreement or earlier court proceedings (Monaghan 1999).

  5. 5.

    T v. T [2003] 3 I.R. 334.

  6. 6.

    C.O’R. v. M. O’R [unreported, H.C., O’Donovan J., 19 September 2000].

  7. 7.

    The Children Act 1997 section 9 introduced section 11A into the 1964 act, which declares that a court in making an order under section 1 may, if it thinks it appropriate, grant custody to the father and mother jointly.

  8. 8.

    Whereas in the UK the legislature (1989 act) abolished the terms ‘custody’ and ‘access’ in favour of ‘residence and contact’, in Ireland the terms remained.

  9. 9.

    The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child was ratified by Ireland in 1992.

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  1. University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa

    Elena Moore

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Moore, E. (2016). Changing Families and Regulating Change in Family Life. In: Divorce, Families and Emotion Work. Palgrave Macmillan Studies in Family and Intimate Life. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-43822-5_2

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