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Dr Ursula Henz

This course is available on the BSc in Language, Culture and Society and BSc in Sociology. This course is not available as an outside option. This course is available with permission to General Course students.

This course has a limited number of places (it is capped). Places are allocated on a first come first served basis.

The course introduces students to the area of family sociology, focusing on contemporary families and intimate relationships in Britain and other Western societies. It provides theoretical and empirical perspectives on a range of topics, including single parent families and post-divorce families; non-heterosexual families; intimate partnerships; parenting; transnational families. 

20 contact hours in the AT.

Reading Weeks: Students on this course will have a reading week in AT Week 6, in line with departmental policy.

Students are required to complete one formative essay.

• Treas, Judith, Scott, Jacqueline & Richards, Martin (eds.) (2014) The Wiley Blackwell Companion to The Sociology of Families, Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley Blackwell - covers many aspects of the course.

Other recommended readings include:

• Chambers, Deborah & Gracia, Pablo (2022): A Sociology of Family Life. 2nd Edition. Cambridge: Polity Press.
• Lareau, Annette (2011): Unequal Childhoods. Class, Race and Family Life. University of California Press: Berkeley, Los Angeles, London.
• Smart, Carol & Neale, Bren (1999): Family Fragments? Cambridge: Polity Press.
• Smart, Carol, Neale, Bren & Wade, Amanda (2001): The Changing Experience of Childhood: Families and Divorce. Cambridge: Polity Press.
• Allan, Graham; Crow, Graham & Sheila Hawker (2011) Stepfamilies. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Coursework (10%) in the AT.
Online assessment (90%) in January.

The first assessment, a reading diary (10%)

The online assessment will be a take home exam to be taken in an 8-hour window in the January exam period.

Attendance at all classes and submission of all set coursework is required.