Diversity of Family in Australia and other Parts of the World - Essay Example

Student Name: Tutor: Title: Diversity of Family Course: Introduction Individualization is an indication of a shift in social relations that place importance on individual autonomy as opposed to social interconnectedness. Families are important, where the social ties of marriage and kinship are weakened, increasingly taken over by the projection of self. Pre-existing social structures have completely been destroyed but the perceptions about roles and dependent has changed over time. Choice is a time that is commonly associated with individual freedom. Individual choice within the contemporary Western society is not confined to consumption (Smart, 2007). It is a vital part in the public discourse and social science language applied in the analysis of many fields of lives of people. Education, economic prosperity, and welfare state have freed people from constraints, traditional customs and moral codes imposed externally. The social structures of gender, religion, family and class are being erased so that individuals no longer possess pre-conceived life trajectories but are forced to reflexively make their own person choices and come up with their biographies (Shaibu & Wallhagen, 2002). Concurrently, the project self with focus on personal development as well as individual self-fulfillment come to take the place of rational and social aims. Relationships found on individual fulfillment as well as consensual love, with emotional and sexual quality, take the place of formal unions focused on socially determined gender roles. Sexuality is majorly removed from normative, institutional, and patriarchal control and from reproduction (Gilding, 2001). The African setting is experiencing a transition where there is shift towards individualization as economies are modernized and urbanized. Social strain has been placed on the traditional family setting. This essay looks at the applicability of the individualization concept across the western world culture and the African culture by looking at the family structures as well as practices. Discussion Individualization is not by any means a choice but a compulsory situation of modernity; whereby modernity takes the place of determining social standing with obligatory and compulsive self-determination. The Foundation to this perspective of individualization is the perception of individual responsibility for a person’s own life situation as well as self-reflexive identity management. In the modern society an individual person is forced to make choices and consequently shoulder the outcome becomes an individual’s responsibility for failure or success. Through individualization the biography of a person is expunged from certain determinants and placed within his own destiny and dependent on his personal decisions (Carter, Duncan, Mariya & Miranda, 2015). Uncertainty dynamic of societal individualization concerns the progressive weakening of social structure in that the expressions of traditionalism has to be chosen as well as invented. The social structure grows to be ambivalent. An individual becomes the author of her own life. Personal biography is made up of accumulation of life experiences generated from daily experiments (Carter, Duncan, Mariya & Miranda, 2015). Features of modernity is the retreating of state-sponsored or traditional roles resulting in dis-embedding of the individual as well as exposing the individual to new controls and constraints in a world of risks, change, precarious freedoms, and competition. Individuals are compelled to make choices constantly whether willing or not as well as take responsibility for failure of success. Contemporary western perceptions of involved fatherhood emphasize more emotional closeness in the relationships of men with their children and men sharing joys as well as caregiving wit mothers. There are patriarchal and gendered struggles that have explicitly and implicitly configured the historical connection of women to caregiving and the absence of men from it (Miller, 2011). The changing structural context painted in the United Kingdom is the introduction of two weeks’ paternity leave in 2003 and the right given to fathers to ask for flexible working. Employers in the United Kingdom have an opportunity of considering parental leave requests and consulting further on the apportionment of parental leave which is ongoing. Changes in the lives of men as fathers have explicit implications in the lives of women too. Fathering and mothering are supremely gendered. They are contingent practices in which parents can struggle against patriarchal habits. Australian ago families 100 years were enmeshed relatively in wider relationships as well as solidarities. In the face of the federation there was an intense debate concerning the impact of economic insecurity on the family. The discussion involved the commencement of welfare support for the disabled and the elderly, as well as the introduction of living wage. Strong families were the foundation of strong nations (Gilding, 2001). Within the last 100 years there has been a notable decrease in the moral and cultural values. Currently individuals in the western word pursue their selfish personal goals at the disadvantage of the family. In the past, the family came first before anything else. The losers are the children who suffer emotionally when families break. There are wider social repercussions represented in terms of crime, alienation and drugs. Initially men ruled private and public life (Shaibu & Wallhagen, 2002). The rules guiding sexuality and marriage were prescriptive. Children and women were greatly vulnerable. However, over the past ten decades there has been a change in the role of women in the society. In the modern world individuals have a choice of whether to get married or not and what kind of sexual orientation and lifestyle they will subscribe to. Couples have a choice whether to stay married or go their own separate ways. Individuals have become important while devaluing the family (Smart, 2007). Issues like same sex marriage and homosexuality have continued to put strain on the traditional social setting in the western world. Choices of one’s sexual orientation and lifestyle have been encouraged through individualization. The assumption in many African countries like Botswana is that families take care of their elderly relatives. Modernization and urbanization of economies in the African context have placed much strain on the African extended family system with negative impacts on the care of elderly people in the society. In a country like Botswana there are no defined programs to provide care for the elderly. The elderly are taken care of in their homes as opposed to nursing homes supported by the government (Shaibu & Wallhagen, 2002). The family unit has been transformed through numerous economic and social forces. Africa is moving towards the individualistic nature from its collective past. Kinship values are being rejected or upheld but they are no longer compulsory. Whereas the population of the elderly has increased due to improved healthcare, the rate of fertility has declined and more women are finding their way into the labour force instead of being mere house wives. African families are experiencing a stressful time as the traditional extended family undergoes transformation towards single-parenthood and of zero-couple. Expansion of programs for the destitute in Botswana is a clear indication of the collapsing of informal system of social aid and growing poverty rates. The adverse forces in play have made the elderly who rely on family care very vulnerable. There is a mounting concern about the care of the adult persons by families. The essence of family in the care of the elderly is well documented across the world. Social changes and increase individualization make the elderly where programs to support them are absent to be at risk and can die (Smart, 2007). Declining social support has to force the government to come up with other means of supporting the elderly within the society since they cannot rely on family care alone. Conclusion Individualization in the western cultural context has replaced the social prescriptive way of life that defined marriage institutions in the 18th and 19th Centuries. The social setting that guided individual decisions has given way to individual autonomy where selfish interests of a person are prioritized over social values and norms. There no longer defined expectations by the society when people should get married; stay married and the number of children that they should have or when they should have them. The social ties of kinship have weakened and given individual autonomy a place where one is responsible for his own failure or success. Whereas there are still some social norms being observed, liberal way of thinking has eroded the conservative perspective about family life and social values. Within the African setting, individualization has not taken central place and social values are still esteemed. Expectation of people having children once they are married and staying married are some of the values perpetuated from generation to generation. However, Africa is experiencing a transitional period towards individualization where people no longer feel obligated to stick to conservative family values and social times of kinships. Individuals are increasingly charting their own future devoid of influence of cultural perspectives. The extended family is Africa is experiencing adverse transformation as more people move to urban areas in search of better jobs. Individualization which was a preserve of the western world has crept into the social fabric in African countries putting stress on the traditional extended families. Many families are at crossroads. The social structure has continued to weaken in the wake of increased modernization and urbanizations of African economies. References Miller, T. 2011, Falling back into Gender? Men's Narratives and Practices around First-time Fatherhood, Sociology, 45 (6): pp. 1094-1109. Shaibu, S. & Wallhagen, M. I., 2002, Family caregiving of the elderly in Botswana: Boundaries of culturally acceptable options and resources, Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology 17: 139–154. Carter, J., Duncan, S., Mariya, S., & Miranda, P. 2015, Sex, Love and Security: Accounts of Distance and Commitment in Living Apart Together Relationships, Sociology 1–18 Smart, C., 2007, Same sex couples and marriage: negotiating relational landscapes with families and friends, The Sociological Review, 55:4 (2007) Gilding, M. 2001, Changing families in Australia: 1901-2001, Family Matters No.60 Spring/Summer 2001 Australian Institute of Family Studies. Read More