Conclusion: Change and Continuity

Abstract

A key theme of recent family sociology, including this book, is that family life is diverse. Moreover this diversity is itself multifaceted. One consequence of this is that any discussion of ‘the family’ reifies the practices that different families generate at different times. In this regard, families are always changing, sometimes slowly, sometimes more radically. As the personal and life course positions of a family’s members — however defined — alter, so the patterning of the emergent interactions and the consequent relationships involved change. But equally, as Hareven’s (1982) conceptualisation of change highlights, change also occurs historically and not just at the individual or life course level. That is, as different social and economic conditions develop, across time the resultant practices that different families collectively construct generate a new sense of what is acceptable and normal within family life. In this regard, the greater tolerance of diversity now found in the construction of family life reflects a historic shift in understandings of the boundaries between private and public spheres.