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We are what we celebrate. Amitai Etzioni (2004)
INTRODUCTION
The sociological recent theorization on deinstitutionalization, individualization and risk (Bauman, 2003; Beck & Beck-Gernsheim, 1995; Beck-Gernsheim, 2002; Giddens, 1992) is filled with references to the postmodern family, anchored in the images and metaphors of fragmentation, instability and uncertainty. The family dissolution through divorce is often given as an illustration ofthat postmodern family's main features: ephemeral, smaller, fastpaced, crossed by the processes of privatization, sentimentalization and democratization, aspiring to autonomy and devaluing continuity before the hic et nunc experiences (Daly, 1996). However, these images oppose to the numerous empirical evidences of the family existence and continuity, both as practice and representation (Bourdieu, 1993; Brannen & Nielsen, 2005). In fact, families and kinship have not disappeared so fatalistically as originally speculated; they continue to exist, reshaping old sociological categories and bringing new vocabulary and adding concepts to the field. How to capture the family in a way that allows the broad and plural understanding of the many empirical manifestations on which the family appears to us nowadays?
Beyond images and metaphors of fragility, fluidity and liquidity, and by exercising the sociological imagination, this paper intends to address the question of "what constructs the contemporary family?" In search for answers, it turns to the analysis of empirical findings taken from the conduct of a broader sociological qualitative study based on interviewing2. Grounded on a rich and thick description of the narratives provided by both divorced men and women, we review the meanings behind and beyond family practices. By the end, we hope to bring a less monochromatic and a more textured view of the family life (Smart, 2007), and by doing so, to deconstruct somehow the idea of the contemporary family fragility and fluidity.
Using the sociological lens, the paper starts by introducing the discussion around the sociological construction of the postmodern family and conceptualizing the main concepts here discussed, namely the ones of family practices and family rituals; then briefly presents method, data gathering and analysis procedures; it discusses some empirical findings; and finally points out concluding remarks and food for thought.
The Sociological Construction of the Postmodern Family: Background, Developments and Perspectives
In the 50s of the twentieth century, Talcott Parsons presented a familiar model theoretically adjusted...