What can we learn?

Abstract

As new forms of family and ‘non-traditional’ families grow in number, there is a need for understanding of these “new” arrangements and models of parenthood. This ground-breaking book discusses, using a comparative and a sociological perspective, examples of the relationship between changing gender identities and processes of family formation in the Western experience: including asexual couples; childfree women and men; living apart together (LAT) couples; lone mothers and fathers; homosexual and trans parents. The book shows that, in the 21st century, it is possible to live, love, form a family without sex, without children, without a shared home, without a partner, without a working husband, without a heterosexual orientation or without a “biological” sexual body. This unique book also discusses the political implications—in terms of social movements characteristics and demands—of these emerging dimensions of family life. Such changes are likely to be of interest for a wide range of educational and policy areas which impact on families, women, men, and children and the book will therefore be of interest to a wide readership.