Publisher's Synopsis
This interdisciplinary edited collection will challenge the idea of the static family that can be 'broken', and instead think of family as always 'on the move', both conceptually and in practice. This dual approach to family is the unique contribution of the book, which offers new perspectives on the sociology and geography of the family, drawn together by the shared lens of family mobilities. As such it brings together insights from the diverse work of interdisciplinary academics working alone and collaboratively on different aspects of family lives and relationships.
The central argument of the book is
that the concept of family is always in motion: a disruption in one aspect of
family relations, for example, the ending of the intimate relationship between
parents, is part of the ongoing project of family. In addition, families are
made through mobility and immobility in relation to people, communications,
objects and ideas. Contributions from a range of academics across disciplines consider
changes in family practices and the ways in which they are produced through
motion.
This book
seeks to understand families as always in motion; changing, adapting and
re-routed. Integral to this discussion is the spatiality and temporality of family,
that families are produced in different times and spaces. Families are also
made through interactions with material things, including non-human living
things and through the emotional ties and responses that determine their form
and practices.
