Wider Families

Here is a unique book that addresses the changing definition of family and explores the many types of relationships and the variety of people that are often central to our experience of family. A decline in the importance of traditional nuclear and extended families has led people to search for alternative relationships and support networks arising from lifestyle needs. These wider families are greater in width and scope than families formed by marriage or those that exist due to biological connections. Wider Families examines these new families and the economic and social changes that have given rise to these alternative units. This thought-provoking volume analyzes the nature of wider families through theoretical constructs and actual cases drawn from current events and scholarly research. Throughout the chapters, authoritative contributors create a new definition of "family" that offers the wider family concept as a realm of free choice and autonomy and a potential ethical model for the future. Specific models of wider families such as lesbian families, communes in the 1970s, and relationships among members of a yacht club offer clear illustrations of the wider family in operation. Family researchers, professors teaching marriage and family courses, professors of introductory sociology courses emphasizing the family, as well as "futurist" scholars, will find this insightful volume to be a helpful tool in recognizing and understanding the important changes in the concept of family, and its impact on the future of our society.