Compare, Contrast and evaluate the relevance of two theories of conjugal (or intimate) relationships. -durkheims theory of marriage and domestic anomie and berger and kellmans theory of the social construction of marriage.

Compare, Contrast and evaluate the relevance of two theoires of conjugal (or intimate) relationships, selecting two from this list-

• Durkehims theory of marriage and domestice (or sexual) anomie – anomic suicide
• Bergers and kellners (luckmanns) theory of the social construction of marriage – Marriage and the construction of reality

Durkheim – strongly recommended that you:

• Supplement your reading of Durkheim with his article ‘Divorce by Mutual Consent’ (this is a chapter in the edited collection by Mark Traugott called On Institutional Analysis – the chapter has been digitised so you can download it via Leganto).
• Support your reading by looking at Jennifer Lehmann’s summary, and feminist critique, of Durkheim, ‘Durkheim’s Response to Feminism: Prescriptions for Women’ (especially pp. 176-181).
• For another overview of Durkheim, see Herbert Bynder’s article, ‘Emile Durkheim and the Sociology of the Family’, especially the short section on ‘Divorce’ (pp.530-33).
• There are also 10 pages on Durkheim in Bowring, Erotic Love in Sociology, Philosophy and Literature (pp. 165-75).

If you select Berger and Kellner as one of your theorists, it is strongly recommended that you:

• Show some understanding of the theoretical paradigm that underpins the Berger and Kellner’s analysis by reading the ‘Introduction’ to Berger and Luckmann’s The Social Construction of Reality.
• Supplement your understanding of the Berger and Kellner article by reading Bronwyn Davies’ feminist critique of it, ‘Marriage and the Construction of Reality Revisited’.

If you select Giddens as one of your theorists, it is strongly recommended that you

• Show some understanding of Giddens’s wider theory of reflexive modernity, and how his account of the pure relationship fits into it. (The most obvious resource here would be the rest of the book – Modernity and Self-Identity – from which the chapter ‘The Trajectory of the Self’ was taken.)
• Have a look at the more detailed account of the changing nature of intimate life that Giddens offers in his book The Transformation of Intimacy.
• Read some secondary literature on the pure relationship, ideally literature with a feminist lens. For example: Lynn Jamieson, ‘Intimacy Transformed? A Critical Look at the Pure Relationship’, Sociology, vol. 33, no. 3 (1999).

could bring foulcault in if started talking about sexuality, mention giddens – article linking durkheim to contemporary theory talking about moral equilibriaism (links to giddens but still useful as he sayys durkehimisnt irrelaevant to contemporary society) – Romantic Relationships, Individualism and the Possibility of Togetherness: Seeing Durkheim in Theories of Contemporary Intimacy

intro- topic – intimate relationships, why is it interesting, whats the problem what the issue- make it interesting and relevant to the reader

start talking about rates of divorse, internet dating, sexting, growth of single parent household – why both studying intimate relationships, name things that are interesting to you, meaningful and relevant to today.

strat explaining giddens pure relationship beck gurnshine – normal choas of love how it has become chaotic for everyone, relationships have never been harder than they are today.

what do we find when we study relationships? – look at oldest theorist: durkheim – societies with higher rates of divorse have higher suicide rates, married men particularly. how does he explain this? this leads into the first paragraph – concept on anomie

1st para— leads onto to explanation of the concept of anomie – marriage in a moral institution, all forms of social connection and social solidarity/ belonging depend on more than the two individuals in the relationship.

• nowadays divorse has become easier, the easier society make divorse the more you weaken the moral institutuon of marriage.

missing – critique the agency, neglect of womens needs, sexism in durkheims analysis –

durkheim was the first to point out that the rise of of divorse, whicoh is doen as now it has becoem easier, – benefits women, recognised this statistically but thought that advantage was undone by the rise of suicide rates in men and the negative effect divorse therefore brings.

fact about married women – draws attention to the way rules, norms can be oppressive leads onto human agency and autonomy and the need for it.

In the 1920s – more liberal divorse laws, higher rates of divorse and remarriage.

1960s culture of sexual liberation. – in this context sociologists became more aware of relationships as something that need to be actively sustained.

1. change in society weakening institions and rules
2. change in intelectual paradime – rise in the change of how sociologists viewed the world. no longer just social facts we now need to understand meaning and reasons behind – goffman, look at what he said.

think about how intimate relationships have become even more fluid and uncertain since Berger and Kellner was writing, and how the kinds of self-deceptions mentioned above would today be associated with an obsolete model of romantic intimacy that is incompatible with the more reflexive kind of relationships described by Giddens (the ‘pure relationship’), Bauman (‘liquid love’) and Beck and Beck-Gernsheim (the ‘normal chaos of love’).

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integrate critisms of the first perspective into summary of the second perspective.

refer back to durkheim in summary of burger and kellner – durkheimien premise, we create the social world but not from scratch-out of the norms and values and repition that comes from the collective concious

just how theyve been critical of durkehims sexism – there is also sexism in burger and kellners theory.

Durkheim does discuss the relationship between marriage and egoism in the chapter on ‘Egoistic Suicide’, but interestingly he argues that it is not so much marriage as the family, and the ‘density’ of its membership (i.e. the number of people in the family and the frequency of their contact) which is the critical issue, rather than the moral regulation of people’s desires. He does, in fact, link the suicide of widowers (i.e. the end of a marriage due to the death of one’s spouse rather than divorce’) to egoistic suicide, which is a classic case of the ‘social isolation’ that you refer to.

“Durkheim also talks about divorce rates and widows, and includes a table showing places where divorce is more common and how they experience higher suicide rates.”

PLAN

1. Compare their relevance to understanding increasing rates of divorce. 1.
2. Compare their relevance to understanding changing norms of dating and marriage
3. Contrast their relevance to understanding increasing rates of divorce
4. Contrast their relevance to understanding changing norms of dating and marriage
5. Evaluate their relevance to understanding increasing rates of divorce
6. Evaluate their relevance to understanding changing norms of dating and marriage

• E.g. Both are patriarchal (both overlook the agency of women

Point: Both say that modern trends in intimate relationships are determined by society

Why true:

• B&K say that society is a ‘nomus building process’
• Durkheim says…

Why important: