1932
0
  1. Home
  2. A-Z Publications
  3. Annual Review of Anthropology
  4. Volume 44, 2015
  5. Article

Annual Review of Anthropology

Volume 44, 2015

How Postindustrial Families Talk

Abstract

The nuclear family is both crucible and product of capitalism and modernity, carried forth and modified across generations through ordinary communicative and other social practices. Focusing on postindustrial middle-class families, this review analyzes key discursive practices that promote “the entrepreneurial child” who can display creative language and problem-solving skills requisite to enter the globalized knowledge class as adults. It also considers how the entrepreneurial thrust, including the democratization of the parent–child relationship and exercise of individual desire, complicates family cooperation. Family quality time, heightened child-centeredness, children's social involvement as parental endeavor, children's autonomy and freedom, and postindustrial intimacies organize how family members communicate from morning to night.

Keyword(s): child-centeredness, family communication, individualism, intimacy, parenting, postindustrial childhood
Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-anthro-102214-014027
2015-10-21
2024-04-30
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/deliver/fulltext/anthro/44/1/annurev-anthro-102214-014027.html?itemId=/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-anthro-102214-014027&mimeType=html&fmt=ahah

Literature Cited

  1. Anagnost A, Arai A, Ren H. 2013. Global Futures in East Asia: Youth, Nation and the New Economy Stanford, CA: Stanford Univ. Press
  2. Arai A. 2013. Notes to the heart: new lessons in national sentiment. See Anagnost et al. 2013 174–96
  3. Ariès P. 1960. L'Enfant et la Vie Familiale sous l'Ancien Régime Paris: Plon
  4. Arnold J, Graesch AP, Ochs E, Ragazzini E. 2012. Life at Home in the 21st Century: 32 Families Open Their Doors Los Angeles, CA: Cotsen Inst. Archaeol. Press
  5. Aronsson K, Cekaite A. 2011. Activity contracts and directives in everyday family politics. Discourse Soc. 22:2137–54 [Google Scholar]
  6. Aukrust VG, Snow CE. 1998. Narratives and explanations during mealtime conversations in Norway and the U.S. Lang. Soc. 27:2221–46 [Google Scholar]
  7. Beck U, Beck-Gernsheim E. 2002. Individualization London: Sage
  8. Bell D. 1974. The Coming of Post-Industrial Society New York: Harper Colophon
  9. Bell D. 1993. Communitarianism and Its Critics Oxford, UK: Oxford Univ. Press
  10. Bereiter C, Engelmann S. 1966. Teaching Disadvantaged Children in the Preschool Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall
  11. Berman EC. 2012. Children Have Nothing to Hide: Deception, Age, and Avoiding Giving in the Marshall Islands Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press
  12. Bernstein B. 1964. Elaborated and restricted codes: their social origins and some consequences. Special Issue The Ethnography of Communication JJ Gumperz, D Hymes Am. Anthropol. 66:6 II:55–69 [Google Scholar]
  13. Bianchi SM, Robinson JP, Milkie MA. 2006. Changing Rhythms of American Family Life New York: Russell Sage Found.
  14. Bjornberg U. 1991. European Parents in the 1990s: Contradictions and Comparisons New Brunswick, NJ: Translation
  15. Blum-Kulka S. 1997. Dinner Talk: Cultural Patterns of Sociability and Socialization in Family Discourse Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum
  16. Bohanek JG, Fivush R, Zaman W, Lepore CE, Merchant S, Duke MP. 2009. Narrative interaction in family dinnertime conversations. Merrill-Palmer Q. 55:4488–515 [Google Scholar]
  17. Brown P. 2012. The cultural organization of attention. See Duranti et al. 2012 29–55
  18. Brown R, Gilman A. 1960. The pronouns of power and solidarity. Style in Language TA Sebeok 253–76 Cambridge, MA: MIT Press [Google Scholar]
  19. Burdelski M. 2006. Language socialization of two-year old children in Kansai, Japan: the family and beyond PhD Thesis, Univ. Calif., Los Angeles
  20. Burdelski M. 2012. Language socialization and politeness routines. See Duranti et al. 2012 275–95
  21. Calvert SL, Wilson BJ. 2008. The Handbook of Children, Media and Development Malden, MA: Blackwell
  22. Campos B, Graesch A, Repetti R, Bradbury T, Ochs E. 2009. Opportunity for interaction? A naturalistic observation study of dual-earner families after work and school. J. Fam. Psychol. 23:798–807 [Google Scholar]
  23. Campos B, Wang S, Plaksina T, Repetti RL, Schoebi D. et al. 2013. Positive and negative emotion in the daily life of dual-earner couples with children. J. Fam. Psychol. 27:76–85 [Google Scholar]
  24. Castells M. 1998. End of Millennium: The Information Age, Society, Economics and Culture 3 Oxford, UK: Blackwell
  25. Chapin BL. 2010. “We have to give”: Sinhala mothers' responses to children's expression of desire. Ethos 38:4354–68 [Google Scholar]
  26. Christensen K, Schneider B. 2010. Workplace Flexibility: Realigning 20th Century Jobs to 21st Century Workers Ithaca, NY: Cornell Univ. Press
  27. Christensen TH. 2009. “Connected presence” in distributed family life. New Media Soc. 11:3433–51 [Google Scholar]
  28. Darrah C, Freeman JM, English-Lueck JA. 2007. Busier than Ever! Why American Families Can't Slow Down Palo Alto, CA: Stanford Univ. Press
  29. de León L. 1998. The emergent participant: interactive patterns in the socialization of Tzotzil (Mayan) infants. J. Linguist. Anthropol. 8:2131–61 [Google Scholar]
  30. de León L. 2012. Language socialization and multiparty participation frameworks. See Duranti et al. 2012 81–111
  31. Demos J. 1970. A Little Commonwealth: Family Life in Plymouth Colony New York: Oxford Univ. Press
  32. Devitt K, Roker D. 2009. The role of mobile phones in family communication. Child. Soc. 23:189–202 [Google Scholar]
  33. Dewey J. 1999 (1930). Individualism Old and New Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books
  34. Donzelo J. 1979. The Policing of Families New York: Pantheon
  35. Dreyfus HL, Spinosa C. 1997. Highway bridges and feasts: Heidegger and Borgmann on how to affirm technology. Man World 30:159–77 [Google Scholar]
  36. Drucker P. 1967. The Effective Executive New York: Harper & Row
  37. Duranti A, Ochs E, Schieffelin B. 2012. The Handbook of Language Socialization Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell
  38. Durkheim E. 1933. The Division of Labor in Society New York: Free Press
  39. Fader A. 2009. Mitzvah Girls: Bringing Up the Next Generation of Hasidic Jews in Brooklyn Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press
  40. Farb P, Armelagos G. 1980. Consuming Passions: The Anthropology of Eating Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  41. Faubion JD. 2001. The Ethics of Kinship: Ethnographic Inquiries Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield
  42. Fong VL. 2007. Parent-child communication problems and the perceived inadequacies of Chinese only children. Ethos 35:185–127 [Google Scholar]
  43. Forsberg L. 2009. Managing time and childcare in dual-earner families: unforeseen consequences of household strategies. Acta Sociol. 52:2162–75 [Google Scholar]
  44. Garcia-Sánchez I. 2014. Language and Muslim Immigrant Childhoods: The Politics of Belonging Malden, MA: Wiley Blackwell
  45. Giddens A. 1990. The Consequences of Modernity Stanford, CA: Stanford Univ. Press
  46. Giddens A. 1992. The Transformation of Intimacy: Sexuality, Love, and Eroticism in Modern Societies Stanford, CA: Stanford Univ. Press
  47. Gillies V. 2003. Family and intimate relationships: a review of the sociological research Work. Pap. 2, Fam. Soc. Capital ESRC Res. Group, London South Bank Univ.
  48. Gillis JR. 2001. Never enough time: some paradoxes of modern family time(s). Minding the Time in Family Experience: Emerging Perspectives and Issues KJ Daly 19–37 Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage [Google Scholar]
  49. Goffman E. 1972. Relations in Public New York: Harper & Row
  50. Good J. 2009. Multitasking and attention in interaction: negotiating multiple tasks in everyday family life PhD Thesis, Univ. Calif., Los Angeles
  51. Goodwin C. 2007. Participation, stance, and affect in the organization of activities. Discourse Soc. 18:153–73 [Google Scholar]
  52. Goodwin MH. 2007. Occasioned knowledge exploration in family interaction. Discourse Soc. 18:193–110 [Google Scholar]
  53. Goodwin MH. 2015. Care-full look at language, gender, and embodied intimacy. Shifting Visions: Gender, Sexuality, Discourse, and Language A Jule 27–48 Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Sch. Press [Google Scholar]
  54. Goodwin MH, Cekaite A. 2013. Calibration in directive/response sequences in family interaction. J. Pragmat. 46:122–38 [Google Scholar]
  55. Goodwin MH, Goodwin C. 2013. Nurturing. See Ochs & Kremer-Sadlik 2013 151–73
  56. Gordon C. 2007. “I just feel horribly embarrassed when she does that”: constituting a mother's identity. See Tannen et al. 2007 72–102
  57. Gottzén L, Kremer-Sadlik T. 2012. Fatherhood and youth sports: a balancing act between care and expectations. Gender Soc. 26:4639–64 [Google Scholar]
  58. Graesch A. 2013. At home. See Ochs et al. 2013 27–47
  59. Hareven T. 2000. Families, History, and Social Change Boulder, CO: Westview
  60. Harkness S, Super CM, Pai S. 2000. Individualism and the “Western mind” reconsidered: American and Dutch parents' ethnotheories of children and family. The Social Construction of the Child: Understanding Variability Within and Across Contexts, New Directions in Child Development 87 S Harkness, C Raeff, CM Super 23–39 San Francisco: Jossey-Bass [Google Scholar]
  61. Heath SB. 1983. Ways with Words: Language, Life and Work in Communities and Classrooms Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press
  62. Hirsch J, Wardlow H. 2006. Modern Loves: The Anthropology of Romantic Courtship and Companionate Marriage Ann Arbor: Univ. Mich. Press
  63. Hochschild A. 2012. The Outsourced Self: Intimate Life in Market Times New York: Metropolitan Books
  64. Hochschild A, Ehrenreich B. 2002. Global Woman: Nannies, Maids and Sex Workers in the New Economy New York: Metropolitan Books
  65. Hochschild A. 1989. The Second Shift: Working Parents and the Revolution in the Home New York: Viking Penguin
  66. Hoff-Ginsberg E. 1991. Mother-child conversation in different social classes and communicative settings. Child Dev. 62:4782–96 [Google Scholar]
  67. Hofferth SL, Sandberg JF. 2001. How American children spend their time. J. Marriage Fam. 63:2295–308 [Google Scholar]
  68. Hoffman DM. 2013. Power struggles: the paradoxes of emotion and control among child-centered mothers in the privileged United States. Ethos 41:175–97 [Google Scholar]
  69. Howard K. 2010. Social relationships and language shift in Northern Thailand. J. Socioling. 14:3313–40 [Google Scholar]
  70. Howard K. 2012. Language socialization and hierarchy. See Duranti et al. 2012 341–64
  71. James A, Jenks C, Prout A. 1998. Theorizing Childhood Cambridge, UK: Polity Press
  72. Jamieson L. 1998. Intimacy: Personal Relationships in Modern Societies Cambridge, UK: Polity Press
  73. Jones DS. 2012. Masters of the Universe: Hayek, Friedman, and the Birth of Neoliberal Politics Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press
  74. Jones GM, Schieffelin BB. 2009. Talking text and talking back: “My BFF Jill” from boob tube to Youtube. J. Comp.-Mediat. Comm. 14:1050–79 [Google Scholar]
  75. Kendall S. 2007. Father as breadwinner, mother as worker: gendered positions in feminist and traditional discourses of work and family. See Tannen et al. 2007 123–63
  76. Klein W, Goodwin MH. 2013. Chores. See Ochs & Kremer-Sadlik 2013 111–29
  77. Kleinman A, Yan Y, Jun J, Lee S, Zhang E. et al. 2011. Deep China: The Moral Life of the Person Berkeley: Univ. Calif. Press
  78. Kolbert E. 2012. Spoiled rotten: Why do kids rule the roost?. The New Yorker July 2, http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/07/02/spoiled-rotten
  79. Kremer-Sadlik T. 2013. Time for family. See Ochs & Kremer-Sadlik 2013 217–31
  80. Kremer-Sadlik T, Fatigante M. 2015. Investing in children's future: cross-cultural perspectives and ideologies on parental involvement in education. Childhood 22:67–84 [Google Scholar]
  81. Kremer-Sadlik T, Fatigante M, Fasulo A. 2008. Discourse on family time: the cultural interpretation of family togetherness in Los Angeles and Rome. Ethos 36:3283–309 [Google Scholar]
  82. Kremer-Sadlik T, Izquierdo C, Fatigante M. 2010. Making meaning of everyday practices: parents' attitudes toward children's extracurricular activities in the United States and in Italy. Anthropol. Educ. Q. 41:35–54 [Google Scholar]
  83. Kremer-Sadlik T, Kim JL. 2007. Lessons from sports: children's socialization to values through family interaction during sports activities. Discourse Soc. 18:135–52 [Google Scholar]
  84. Kremer-Sadlik T, Paugh A. 2007. Everyday moments: finding “quality time” in American working families. Time Soc. 16:2/3287–308 [Google Scholar]
  85. Kuan T. 2011. “The heart says one thing but the hand does another”: a story about emotion-work, ambivalence, and popular advice for parents. China J. 65:77–100 [Google Scholar]
  86. Kuserow A. 2004. American Individualisms: Child Rearing and Social Class in Three Neighborhoods New York: Palgrove Macmillan
  87. Langford W, Lewis C, Solomon Y, Warin J. 2001. Family Understandings London: Family Policy Stud. Cent.
  88. Lareau A. 2003. Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race, and Family Life Berkeley: Univ. Calif. Press
  89. Levey H. 2009. Pageant princesses and math whizzes: understanding children's activities as a form of children's work. Childhood 16:2195–212 [Google Scholar]
  90. LeVine RA, Miller P, West M. 1988. Parental Behavior in Diverse Societies San Francisco: Jossey-Bass
  91. Loyd H. 2012. The logic of conflict: practices of social control among inner city Neapolitan girls. Sociological Studies of Children and Youth 15 Disputes in Everyday Life: Social and Moral Orders of Children and Young People S Danby, M Theobald 325–53 Bingley, UK: Emerald [Google Scholar]
  92. Lynd R, Lynd HM. 1929. Middletown: A Study in Modern American Culture New York: Harcourt, Brace
  93. Macfarlane A. 1978. The Origins of English Individualism: The Family Property and Social Transition West Sussex, UK: Wiley
  94. Ochs E. 1988. Culture and Language Development: Language Acquisition and Language Socialization in a Samoan Village Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press
  95. Ochs E, Beck M. 2013. Dinner. See Ochs & Kremer-Sadlik 2013 48–66
  96. Ochs E, Campos B. 2013. Coming home. See Ochs & Kremer-Sadlik 2013 13–26
  97. Ochs E, Izquierdo C. 2009. Responsibility in childhood: three developmental trajectories. Ethos 37:4391–413 [Google Scholar]
  98. Ochs E, Kremer-Sadlik T. 2013. Fast-Forward Family: Home, Work, and Relationships in Middle Class America Berkeley: Univ. Calif. Press
  99. Ochs E, Pontecorvo C, Fasulo A. 1996. Socializing taste. Ethnos 6:17–46 [Google Scholar]
  100. Ochs E, Schieffelin BB. 1984. Language acquisition and socialization: three developmental stories. Culture Theory: Essays on Mind, Self, and Emotion RA Shweder, RA LeVine 276–320 Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
  101. Ochs E, Shohet M. 2006. The cultural structuring of mealtime socialization. New Dir. Child Adolesc. Dev. 11:35–49 [Google Scholar]
  102. Ochs E, Shohet M, Campos B, Beck M. 2010. Coming together at dinner: a study of working families. See Christensen & Schneider 2010 57–70
  103. Ochs E, Taylor C, Rudolph D, Smith R. 1992. Story-telling as a theory-building activity. Discourse Proc. 15:137–72 [Google Scholar]
  104. Offer S, Schneider B. 2010. Multitasking among working families: a strategy for dealing with the time squeeze. See Christensen & Schneider 2010 43–56
  105. Palen L, Hughes A. 2007. When home base is not a place: parents' use of mobile telephones. Pers. Ubiquit. Comput. 11:339–48 [Google Scholar]
  106. Paradise R, de Haan M. 2009. Responsibility and reciprocity: social organization of Mazahua learning practices. Anthropol. Educ. Q. 40:2187–204 [Google Scholar]
  107. Park E. 2006. Grandparents, grandchildren, and heritage language use in Korean. Heritage Language Development: Focus on East Asian Immigrants K Kondo-Brown 57–86 Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins [Google Scholar]
  108. Peletz MG. 1995. Kinship studies in late twentieth-century anthropology. Annu. Rev. Anthropol. 24:343–72 [Google Scholar]
  109. Pigeron E. 2009. The technology-mediated worlds of American families. PhD Thesis. Univ. Calif., Los Angeles
  110. Popkewitz TS. 2003. Governing the child and pedagogicalization of the parent: historical excursus into the present. Governing Children, Families, and Education: Restructuring the Welfare State MN Bloch, K Holmlund, I Moquvist, TS Popkewitz 35–61 New York: Palgrave Macmillan [Google Scholar]
  111. Popper KR. 1945. Open Society and Its Enemies London: Routledge
  112. Qvortrup J. 2005. Varieties of childhood. Studies in Modern Childhood: Society, Agency, and Culture J Qvortrup 1–20 New York: Palgrave Macmillan [Google Scholar]
  113. Rawls J. 1993. Political Liberalism New York: Columbia Univ. Press
  114. Robinson JP, Godbey G. 1997. Time for Life: The Surprising Ways Americans Use their Time University Park: Pa. State Univ. Press
  115. Rofel L. 2007. Desiring China: Experiments in Neoliberalism, Sexuality, and Public Culture Durham, NC: Duke Univ. Press
  116. Rogoff B, Alcalá L, Coppens AD. et al. 2014. Special Issue: Learning by Observing and Pitching in to Family and Community Endeavors. Hum. Dev. 57:2–365–171 [Google Scholar]
  117. Rogoff B, Jayanti M, Göncü A, Mosier C. 1993. Guided participation in cultural activity by toddlers and caregivers. Contexts for Learning: Sociocultural Dynamics in Children's Development EA Forman, N Minick, C Addison Stone 230–53 New York: Oxford Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
  118. Rogoff B, Paradise R, Arauz RM, Correa-Chavez M, Angelillo C. 2003. Firsthand learning through intent participation. Annu. Rev. Psychol. 54:175–203 [Google Scholar]
  119. Sandberg S. 2013. Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead New York: Knopf
  120. Schieffelin BB. 1990. The Give and Take of Everyday Life: Language Socialization of Kaluli Children Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press
  121. Shankar S, Cavanaugh J. 2012. Language and materiality in global capitalism. Annu. Rev. Anthropol. 41:355–69 [Google Scholar]
  122. Shohet M. 2013. Everyday sacrifice and language socialization in Vietnam: the power of a respect particle. Am. Anthropol. 115:2203–17 [Google Scholar]
  123. Slaughter AM. 2012. Why women still can't have it all. The Atlantic June 13
  124. Snow CE, Ferguson CA. 1977. Talking to Children: Language Input and Acquisition Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press
  125. Solomon Y, Warin J, Lewis C, Langford W. 2002. Intimate talk between parents and their teenage children: democratic openness or covert control?. Sociology 36:4965–83 [Google Scholar]
  126. Spiro ME. 1993. Is the western conception of the self “peculiar” within the context of the world cultures?. Ethos 21:2107–53 [Google Scholar]
  127. Stacey J. 1998. Brave New Families: Stories of Domestic Upheaval in Late Twentieth-Century America Berkeley: Univ. Calif. Press
  128. Sterponi L. 2003. Account episodes in family discourse: the making of morality in everyday interaction. Discourse Stud. 5:179–100 [Google Scholar]
  129. Sterponi L. 2014. Caught red-handed: how Italian parents engage children in moral discourse and action. Talking about Right and Wrong: Parent-Child Conversations as Contexts for Moral Development C Wainryb, HE Recchia 122–42 Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
  130. Suárez-Orozco C, Suárez-Orozco M, Todorova I. 2008. Learning a New Land: Immigrant Students in American Society Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press
  131. Such E, Walker R. 2005. Young citizens or policy objects? Children in the “rights and responsibilities” debate. J. Soc. Policy 34:139–57 [Google Scholar]
  132. Takada A. 2012. Pre-verbal infant-caregiver interaction. See Duranti et al. 2012 56–80
  133. Tannen D. 1990. Rethinking power and solidarity in gender dominance. Proc. 16th Annu. Meet. Berkeley Linguist. Soc. 16:519–29 [Google Scholar]
  134. Tannen D. 2007. Power maneuvers and connection maneuvers in family interaction. See Tannen et al. 2007 27–48
  135. Tannen D, Kendall S, Gordon C. 2007. Family Talk: Discourse and Identity in Four American Families New York: Oxford Univ. Press
  136. Tomasello M, Carpenter M, Call J, Behne T, Moll H. 2005. Understanding and sharing intentions: the origins of cultural cognition. Behav. Brain Sci. 28:675–735 [Google Scholar]
  137. Tulbert E, Goodwin MH. 2011. Choreographies of attention: multimodality in a routine family activity. Embodied Interaction: Language and Body in the Material World J Streeck, C Goodwin, C LeBaron 79–92 Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
  138. Turkle S. 2011. Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other New York: Basic Books
  139. Weisleder A, Fernald A. 2013. Talking to children matters: Early language experience strengthens processing and builds vocabulary. Psychol. Sci. 24:112143–52 [Google Scholar]
  140. Wellman B, Smith A, Wells A, Kennedy T. 2008. Networked families Rep., Oct. 19, Pew Res. Cent. Internet Am. Life Proj. http://www.pewinternet.org/2008/10/19/networked-families/
  141. Whiting B, Edwards CP. 1988. Children of Different Worlds: The Formation of Social Behavior Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press
  142. Wingard L. 2007. Constructing time and prioritizing activities in parent-child interaction. Discourse Soc. 18:175–91 [Google Scholar]
  143. Wingard L, Forsberg L. 2009. Parent involvement in children's homework in American and Swedish dual-earner families. J. Pragmat. 41:81576–95 [Google Scholar]
  144. Yan Y. 2003. Private Life under Socialism: Love, Intimacy, and Family Change in a Chinese Village, 1949–1999 Stanford, CA: Stanford Univ. Press
  145. Zelizer VA. 1994. Pricing the Priceless Child: The Changing Social Value of Children Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press
/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-anthro-102214-014027
Loading
  • Article Type: Review Article

Most Cited Most Cited RSS feed

This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error