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Families With Futures

A Survey of Family Studies for the Twenty-First Century

• By Meg Wilkes Karraker, Janet R. Grochowski

• Price: $79.95
• Binding: Hardback
• Pages: 480
• Published by: Routledge
• Publication Date: 9th November 2005
• ISBN: 978-0-8058-5469-5

About the Book

The new interdisciplinary textbook, Families With Futures, offers a fresh approach to the study of families in everyday life. Learners are presented with an opportunity to explore not only "what was" but "what could be" for today's families, through a positive prism--families as dynamic, evolving organisms, and the family members as creative and resilient.

Families With Futures provides several unique chapters including a strong theory and methods chapter that positions family studies as a scientific discipline, grounded in not only ethics but also concerns for social action. Families With Futures contains thoughtful chapters on resilience, time, wellness, sexual intimacy and an Epilogue that frames family studies as a professional career.

Each chapter opens with a concise introduction and a detailed table of contents and ends with a glossary and a set of provocative questions. Each chapter closes with references for cited works, and electronic, organizational, and print resources for the students who want to move deeper into the material. Finally, the full text of the National Council on Family Relations' Ethical Principles and Guidelines is included as an appendix. Another appendix includes a comprehensive Guide to Resources for Family Studies, prepared by an information management specialist in social science.

Reviews

"Families With Futures is an interdisciplinary textbook that offers a fresh approach to the study of families in everyday life....[it] provides several unique chapters including a strong theory and methods chapter that positions family studies as a scientific discipline, grounded in not only ethics but also concerns for social action."
—ADOLESCENCE

"Karraker and Grochowski take a family-positive approach....the book is remarkable in its breadth. As researchers in the field of family studies, their book suggests timely and intriguing contemporary questions of identity, diversity, structure, and change."
—PsycCRITIQUES

"Families With Futures is engaging and innovative, filled with practical activities, levelheaded insights, and real-life examples. This is a book that will appeal to all kinds of learners....The authors describe families as what they can be, without getting bogged down in the culture wars that have plagued academics and policymakers in the recent past....Multiple viewpoints are explored and diverse literatures are addressed. The authors cover a great deal of ground remarkably well--they examine the interdisciplinary nature of family studies, propose a resiliency framework, and address key substantive issues such as sexuality, health, relationships, intimacy, uncoupling, kinship, parenting, power, conflict, violence, money, class, diversity, religion, and values."
—Katherine R. Allen, Ph.D.
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

"Intended for tertiary students, this substantial text focuses on the interdisciplinary field of family studies. It aims to apply family studies to everyday life, study changes in the concepts and processes of families and to encourage students to critically examine family relationships."

-Australian Institute of Family Studies

Table of Contents

Contents: Prologue: From "What Was" Through "What Is" to "What Could Be." Part I: The Art and Science of Family Studies. The Changing World of "Families." Family Scholarship in Action: Theories, Methods, and Ethics. Part II: From Risk to Resiliency. Resiliency: Familes "At Their Best." Hurried Family Culture: Family Time in a Digital Age. Family Wellness: Beyond Absence of Illness. Part III: Intimate Partners and Partnerships. Sexual Intimacy: Behavior, Health, Reproduction, and Education. Forming Relationships: Dating, Cohabiting, and Staying Single. The Conjugal Relationship: Married and Other Committed Partnerships. Decoupled Families: Deserted, Separated, Divorced, and Widowed. Part IV: Children, Kith, and Kin. Parents, Children, and Socialization: Roles, Rights, and Responsibilities. Relatives, Fictive Kin, and Community: Default, Design, and Social Context. Part V: Managing Family Relationships. Family Power, Conflict, and Violence. Money Matters: Class, Economics, and Material Dynamics of Family Living. Epilogue: From "Family Values" to "Valuing Families." Appendices.

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