Multidimensional Developmental Pathways: A Proposal to Facilitate the Conceptualisation of ‘Family Diversity’
- 1 August 1986
- journal article
- research article
- Published by SAGE Publications in Sociological Review
- Vol. 34 (3) , 590-610
- https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-954x.1986.tb00690.x
Abstract
This analysis takes Elder's work on the life-course as a starting point. Two proposals are made: (1) That the sociological use of the concept of ‘the family’ should be restricted to indicate only the occurrence of everyday usage; (2) That the notion of the ‘family life-course’ be replaced by the notion of individual life-courses coinciding upon developmental pathways. In this way the idea of a central type of ‘the family’ is made redundant and we are required, instead, to discover when and why participants refer to a particular developmental pathway as being ‘a family’. This approach not only facilitates the conceptualisation ‘family diversity’ but also compels researchers to engage the rich complexity of everyday life.This publication has 14 references indexed in Scilit:
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