Ideas Matter: Culture Wars, then and now, episode 4: ‘Family matters'

For a long time the family has been viewed as the location of all
sorts of social and moral problems and are where many of the key
discussions in the culture wars have traditionally been played
out.  But recently the focus seems to have shifted from
traditional issues such as marriage, sexual freedom or
abortion  to the questions of parenting – resulting in more
instrumental, and less moral arguments approaches to family life
coming to the fore.  This lecture traces these developments
and clarifies whether and why the family matters.


Lecturer


Dr Jan Macvarish, visiting research fellow at the Centre for
Parenting Culture Studies, University of Kent; author of
Neuroparenting: the expert invasion of family life.


Talking Points in this podcast


Is the state necessarily a threat to the family or can it
support family life?

What are the core values of the nuclear family and are they
worth reinvigorating?

How does 'The Family' as an ideal and an institution relate
to the family as lived?

How might parental authority be reconstituted in the context
of greater gender equality?



Bibliography


Neuroparenting: The expert invasion of family life,  J.
Macvarish, Palgrave Macmillan, 2016


Parenting Culture Studies, E. Lee, J. Bristow, C. Faircloth and J
Macvarish, Palgrave Macmillan, 2014.


The War over the Family: Capturing the Middle Ground, B. Berger
and P.L. Berger, Anchor Press/Doubleday, 1983


THE ACADEMY 2019


In the context of today’s instrumental approaches to knowledge,
The Academy summer school is a modest attempt to demonstrate the
value of scholarship, and of the worth of the university as a
place of free enquiry dedicated to the pursuit of truth.


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