Constructing ‘the family’ across culture

Abstract

In this paper, which is based on a larger research study, I address the research question: How is ‘the family’ constructed and talked about in intercultural and intracultural systemic clinical sessions? I use the qualitative research method of discourse analysis to analyse transcripts from eleven intercultural and intracultural video‐taped family therapy sessions. The participants in the research study were South Asian and White British clinicians and families. Through discourse analysis, I identified the ‘Outsider–Insider discourse of family life’ to describe the different ways in which families define the boundaries around ‘the family’. The findings suggest that although ‘the family’ was constructed differently by South Asian and White British families, clinicians – regardless of whether they were working interculturally or intraculturally – privileged a discourse of ‘the family’ as a two‐generation, two‐parent unit. The theoretical, clinical and training implication of this finding will be discussed.