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Understanding personal lives: After individualisation

Duncan, Simon; Carter, Julia

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Authors

Simon Duncan

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Julia Carter Julia.Carter@uwe.ac.uk
Senior Lecturer in Sociology and Criminology



Contributors

Sheila Quaid
Editor

Catriona Hugman
Editor

Angela Wilcock
Editor

Abstract

This chapter will centrally address the second aim of the collection – to explore innovative theoretical approaches to understanding personal life. It will also seek to disrupt ‘normative’ idealisations - those made by individualisation theorists.

We start with a story about Christina, a working-class wife, mother and part-time employee living in what was a coal-mining village near Barnsley. She felt conflicting desires for self-improvement through developing a career, and for emotional fulfilment as a good mother. Christina’s responses were sometimes reflexive, sometimes habitual, sometimes taking tradition for granted. She rarely took decisions just thinking about herself, rather, her choices were set within emotional relationships with her husband, her dead mother, and above all her children. She also faced imbalances of power with employers, while her own resources were limited. Her agency was both constrained and ‘bonded’, formed through ties with others.

Citation

Duncan, S., & Carter, J. (2022). Understanding personal lives: After individualisation. In S. Quaid, C. Hugman, & A. Wilcock (Eds.), Negotiating families and personal lives in the 21st Century: Exploring diversity, social change and inequalities. Routledge

Online Publication Date Jan 10, 2022
Publication Date Jan 10, 2022
Deposit Date Sep 14, 2022
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Publisher Routledge
Book Title Negotiating families and personal lives in the 21st Century: Exploring diversity, social change and inequalities
Chapter Number 4
ISBN 9780367483401
Keywords Individualisation, families, personal lives, diversity, social change, inequalities, equality
Public URL https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/9981942
Publisher URL https://www.routledge.com/Negotiating-Families-and-Personal-Lives-in-the-21st-Century-Exploring-Diversity/Quaid-Hugman-Wilcock/p/book/9780367483401

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Copyright Statement
This is the author’s accepted manuscript of their chapter ‘Understanding personal lives: After individualisation’ published in the book ‘Negotiating families and personal lives in the 21st Century: Exploring diversity, social change and inequalities’ published by Routledge in 2022.
The final published version is available here: https://www.routledge.com/Negotiating-Families-and-Personal-Lives-in-the-21st-Century-Exploring-Diversity/Quaid-Hugman-Wilcock/p/book/9780367483401




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