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New books
and publications
Members who wish
to announce new books are welcome to do so.
Send a short blurb to
mcginnis@unlv.nevada.edu, and your
announcement will be included on this page.
The Meanings of Marital Equality
by Scott R. Harris, Department of Sociology
and Criminal Justice, Saint Louis
University. SUNY Press (2006) ISBN:
0-7914-6622-1
This new book
develops a constructionist approach to
studying equality and inequality by
synthesizing the theoretical perspectives of
four founding figures in interactionist
thought: Herbert Blumer, Alfred Schutz,
Harold Garfinkel, and John Dewey. The author
uses this approach as he examines the
stories people tell about their equal and
unequal marriages and as he compares those
tales to what researchers have had to say on
the subject. Harris demonstrates that
marital scholars (and social scientists in
general) tend to impose interpretations of
equality and inequality onto their
respondents’ lives rather than respecting
and studying the meanings that people live
by.
“Harris’s unique approach moves well
beyond the standard and, in my view,
very tired thinking about what it means
to have an equal (or unequal) marriage.
If anything is central to the study of
marriage and family, it’s the question
of marital equality. Every scholar and
graduate student working in this area
will need to have this book, and even
those who disagree with the approach
will need to read what Harris offers in
order to properly come to terms with it
from their varied points of view.”
-- Jaber F.
Gubrium, coeditor of Qualitative
Research Practice
“Harris does an excellent job clarifying
the differences between objectivist and
constructionist perspectives. The issues
he discusses are vital for any social
scientific field. In some subfields,
such as social problems research, the
constructionist perspective is well
established. In the family field there
has been some discussion but no
sustained presentation of how a
constructionist perspective would offer
an alternative way of understanding
family life--Harris’s book makes a real
contribution here.”
-- Stan J.
Knapp, Brigham Young University
Earning
More and Getting Less: Why Successful
Wives Can't Buy Equality
By Veronica Jaris Tichenor, Department of
Sociology, State University of New York
- Institute of Technology.
Rutgers University Press (2005)
Paper ISBN 0-8135-3679-0, Cloth ISBN
0-8135-3678-2
In Earning More
and Getting Less: Why Successful Wives Can’t
Buy Equality (Rutgers University Press), Tichenor weaves together personal accounts,
in-depth interviews, and compelling
narrative to examine the power dynamics
among married couples in which wives make
substantially more than their husbands.
Tichenor contends that instead of using
their incomes to negotiate more equal
relationships, wives work with their
husbands to perpetuate male dominance within
the family.
“Historically,
men have derived a great deal of power by
bringing home all (or most) of the family’s
income. They have exercised greater control
over financial and household decisions, and
have enjoyed freedom from household chores.
However, working outside the home has not
been a similar source of power for women,”
says Tichenor, an assistant professor in the
department of sociology at the State
University of New York – Institute of
Technology.
This important
study reveals disturbing evidence that the
conventional power relations defined by
gender are powerful enough to undermine
hierarchies defined by money. Earning More
and Getting Less is essential reading in
sociology, psychology, and family and gender
studies, and for the general reader
interested in this new and growing pattern
in family life.
Fixing
Families: Parents, Power, and the Child
Welfare System
By Jennifer Reich, Department of
Sociology and Criminology at the
University of Denver
Routledge (2005) ISBN 0415947278
The ways
children’s rights are handled by the
state remain highly controversial,
frequently criticized, and a topic of
national interest, yet little is known
about the actual operations of the child
welfare system. Fixing Families takes us
inside Child Protective Services, for an
in-depth look at the entire
organization, from the time allegations
of child maltreatment are investigated
through the court process during which
parents try to regain custody of their
children from the overburdened foster
care system. Jennifer Reich shows how
parents negotiate with the state for
custody of their children, and struggle
to challenge state views of them as
failed families. During her
investigation, Reich had access to many
levels of CPS action, and she discusses
the role of the agency from the
beginning of its dealing with a family,
to the end, when a case is discharged.
Within each chapter are heartbreaking
stories culled from her many ride-alongs
with social workers, interviews with
parents whose children have been placed
in state custody, and the numerous
juvenile court cases that she was able
to observe—stories which illustrate the
personal consequences of bureaucratic
decisions.
With the wisdom of a Solomon, but
with far more intellectual nuance,
patience, and compassion, Jennifer
Reich explores how agents of the
state adjudicate the fate of parents
whose children have been identified
as needing protective services. With
rare sympathy for all the unhappy
actors in these traumatic
conflicts–children, mothers,
fathers, relatives, social workers,
lawyers, and family judges–Reich
moves beyond the easy bromides about
saving children or saving families.
She shows how fixed notions of
family impede efforts to help
families in a fix. Fixing
Families is the book Solomon
would have written if he were a
gifted sociologist.
--Judith
Stacey, Professor of Sociology, New
York University
Author, In the Name of The
Family: Rethinking Family Values in
the Postmodern Age
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Fragile
Families and the Marriage Agenda
Lori
Kowaleski-Jones and Nicholas H.
Wolfinger, editors. Springer, 2005, XVI,
240 p., 31 illus., Hardcover, ISBN:
0-387-25884-1
Many
people see government involvement in
family policy as a response to popular
concern that the American family is in a
state of crisis. Some social scientists
contend that marriage is the solution to
many of the problems associated with
unmarried, or "fragile" families. Other
experts believe that governmental
programs designed to increase marriage
may cause more problems than they solve.
This volume explores various issues
related to fragile families. In addition
to addressing the proposition that
government involvement can raise
marriage rates, this book contains legal
and theoretical perspectives on the
marriage agenda, addresses some of the
causes and consequences of offspring
well-being in fragile families, and
considers the importance of fathers.
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