Recently, scholars have described the consequences of transnational living all families and children: Research, however, has neglected to address in detail the lives of transnational couples still negotiating their relationships. Furthemore, existing research only touches on the lives of third generation South Asians in Northern Ireland and their cnnection to India in relation to contracting a marriage. This dissertation fills the gap by analysing the intimate experiences of South Asians who reside in Northern Ireland, and investigates how a developing autonomy through migration affects patterns of intimacy and marriage choices. My research sought to examine couples who were perceived by themselves and their families to be culturally and/or geographically distant, which constitute two (sometimes overlapping) variations in the organisational arrangements of South Asian marriage. Ethnographic data and interviews demonstrate how South Asians living in Northern Ireland transform meanings of love and intimacy through technology and constructions of selfhood to accommodate these spatial and temporal separations. The dissertation highlights how rather than South Asians feeling 'between cultures', they form an assured sense ofpersol1.hood. What they simultaneously struggle with and strategise, however, is sta111S attainment through 'doing modernity' whilst upholding traditions, as displayed in the processes and performances of contracting a marriage. As a result, rethinking intimate relations has been key for South Asians in the transnational context.

This thesis reports an empirical study of the psychological and social consequences of heterosexual marital status change. The main purpose of this research is to provide a coherent and convincing account of the experience of marital status change across the life course. Examining changes in psychological health and social participation, this study employs a multi-method approach: secondary panel survey data from the BHPS provides an insight into changes in psychological wellbeing over time (N=3446); a questionnaire study considers the associations between marital status, psychological wellbeing and social support (N=510); and in-depth interviews with 82 men and women who have entered into a cohabiting (N=9) or married (N=29) relationship, or experienced a transition out of marriage through widowhood (N=23), or divorce (N=21) are used to explore the impact of a change in marital status on social participation. The main findings indicate that marital status transitions have consequences for psychological health and social participation. The never married, remarried and those in cohabiting or Living Apart Together relationships attain similar levels of psychological health to the continuously married. Transitions out of marriage, on the other hand, have a significant negative impact on psychological wellbeing and perceived social support emerges as a significant mediator of this relationship between marital status and psychological health. Entry into cohabitation and marriage are generally viewed as positive life events, while widowhood and divorce are associated with a considerable disruption to the social network, exchange of social support and sense of identity. Transitions out of marriage force people to reconstruct their social and personal identity and this process of identity change emerges as both a cause of and consequence of changes in social participation. Further, there are specific issues that older widowed people tend to experience as a consequence of increasing age. These include physical limitations, financial status, and smaller social networks prior to marital status change. Unique challenges for the younger widowed include the absence of a peer group and a wider range of practical responsibilities, including young children and ageing parents. In this study, there is no evidence that age plays a significant role in the impact of cohabitation, marriage or divorce. Together, the findings suggest that the lowered levels of psychological health experienced by the widowed and divorced result from the considerable disruption of a transition out of marriage to the social network, exchange of social support and identity, and highlight the differential impact of widowhood across the life course. Support services should, therefore, work with the aim of minimising the negative social outcomes of transitions out of marriage, including separation, divorce and widowhood.

This thesis examines the impact of national crisis in Zimbabwe at the start of the millennium on three families from different ethnic groups and backgrounds, exploring how they situated themselves within the broad political and historic context. The use of linked life stories offers an inter-generational perspective, which crosses gender and geographic borders and encompasses personal, family and historical time. By viewing ‘crisis’ through the prism of the extended family, I argue that individual responses are shaped by a family’s ‘culture’, in other words its history, myths and values, and by a person’s role and status within the family, which is in turn determined by gender, age and generation. This will, I hope, add a new dimension to transnational family studies while contributing to more recent work on ‘crisis migration’. It shows ‘crisis’, not as a specific set of events bounded by history and geography, but as a multi-faceted, dispersed and evolving experience with profound consequences for the lives of individuals and even, perhaps, the future of the extended family.

No description available.

With dramatic changes in family-related behaviours in the past 50 years, there has been an increasing awareness and acceptance of different family arrangements. Subsequently, measuring and studying people’s attitudes towards issues such as commitment to marriage, acceptance of alternative family forms, parental separation and gender roles has gained a lot of attention among those working in the fields of sociology, social psychology and demography. The majority of studies examining the relationship between family-related attitudes and behaviour have focused on either the selection or adaptation effects of attitudes, with fewer (particularly of those using British data) specifically addressing the possibility of both processes taking place. This study’s main goal is to address the latter using the data of two British cohorts born 12 years apart: the 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS) and the 1958 National Child Development Study (NCDS). The cohort’s attitudes are measured by a scale consisting of three items which relate to: marriage being a lifelong commitment, a divorce being easily obtainable these days and the acceptability of parental separation. This work adopts the perspective of value orientation and life course position which implies a recursive nature of attitudes and behaviour whereby behaviour is influenced by people’s values (the selection effect of attitudes) and these values, in turn, adjust following changes in people’s circumstances (the adaptation effect of attitudes). The availability of attitude statements at two time points for each cohort (at age 26 and 30 for BCS; at age 33 and 42 for NCDS) and rich partnership history data allows for such analyses to be carried out as the order of events can be established. Firstly, this research utilises bivariate and multivariate techniques to investigate the determinants of attitudes. Further, it implements regression analyses to explore the relationships between attitude scores and: a) transition to first marriage for non-cohabiting cohort members (BCS and NCDS); b) transition to first marriage of cohabiting cohort members (BCS) and c) dissolution of first marriage (NCDS). The main findings show some evidence of both the selection and adaptation effects of attitudes in relation to marital transitions for both cohorts, indicating the importance of attitudes in shaping people’s behaviour and at the same time showing the tendency of attitudes to change in line with an individual’s personal circumstances.

No description available.

Modern western understandings of citizenship are closely tied to the nation state. This is the political community where members are expected to exercise their freedoms and practice solidarity. When individuals claim rights across borders and move in and out of different polities the state-centric citizenship model is disturbed. Nowhere is this more pronounced than in the European Union where borders are transformed by transnational migration and internal mobility. This has led some scholars to welcome the emergence of a ‘postnational citizenship’ of human rights. Others argue for the need to protect a comprehensive state membership based on shared identity and active participation. The dichotomy of ‘thick and thin’ citizenship warrants critical attention, however. It risks romanticizing national or postnational membership, overlooking historical and contemporary power struggles and change. Agonistic democratic theory offers a particularly promising way of moving beyond the binary. It constructs a dynamic relationship between citizenship rights, participation and identification. Political conflicts over liberties and membership are seen as practices that re-constitute civic actors. By claiming and contesting rights migrants and citizens take part in the ongoing re-founding of polities and develop, reinforce or change their democratic subjectivity. But agonism like its intellectual counterpart deliberative democracy focuses exclusively on public ‘voice’. It neglects to explore the civic potential of exit, entry and re-entry so integral to migration and EU citizenship. In the thesis I address this problem and develop an agonistic conception of citizenship and cross-border movement. I do so through a heuristic empirical case study of transnational immigration and EU mobility in the Danish family unification dispute. In response to restrictive national policy many have used the freedom of movement in the EU to sidestep or contest domestic rules. Based on 30 narrative interviews with Danish-international couples I draw out and conceptualize practices of contestatory transnational citizenship.

No description available.

'Marrying back home' (« se marier au pays ») est une pratique internationale que l’on trouve couramment au sein de la diaspora pakistanaise. Cette étude entreprend de saisir le mécanisme de ces mariages transnationaux et comment les liens transnationaux sont maintenus, produits et reproduits par l'organisation de mariages entre les familles résidant en France et au Pakistan. Les données ont été recueillies en utilisant des méthodes de recherche qualitative. Comme le mariage est un enjeu qui concerne l’ensemble de la famille au Pakistan, il est apparu essentiel d’interviewer les époux, mais aussi leurs parents. Les deux familles en lien (celle de l'époux et celle de la mariée) en France et au Pakistan ont été interrogées afin de mettre à jour les logiques du mariage transnational. Le choix privilégié des époux se fait à l’intérieur des différents niveaux de la parenté au Punjab. Les éléments déterminants pour définir les critères de sélection consistent principalement dans des relations réciproques bien affermies, un respect de la tradition du mariage au sein des liens de parenté et une confiance dans les personnes proches afin d’amenuiser le risque d’anonymat. D’autres critères viennent au second rang comme l'éducation, l'âge, la moralité et les traits comportementaux. Lorsque l’ensemble de ces critères sont réunis, les deux générations négocient alors la mise en correspondance des conjoints potentiels en vue de la décision finale du mariage. Les exigences d’une telle correspondance sont liées au respect des obligations familiales, à la valeur accordée aux enfants, au jeu entre autorité, résistance à celle-ci et parenté, à l’histoire maritale de la famille, à la préservation des racines et à la confiance transnationale au sein de la fratrie. Bien que les mariages transnationaux pakistanais suivent les modèles traditionnels pour célébrer le mariage, l’émigration a toutefois introduit des modifications significatives vis-à-vis des règles en vigueur au Pakistan. Selon un processus semblable, la structure familiale et des ménages est en cours de transition en raison de la présence simultanée des deux familles dans chaque pays. Si les mariages transnationaux maintiennent les liens familiaux entre les deux pays en réaffirmant les valeurs culturelles liées au mariage, les modalités des relations entre hommes et femmes et entre générations évoluent néanmoins suivant les influences culturelles de la société d'accueil. / ‘Marrying back home’ is one of the transnational practices demonstrated by Pakistani diaspora to maintain their links with their country of origin. This study is an attempt to understand what the mechanism of transnational marriages is and how transnational links are maintained, produced and reproduced by organizing marriages between families residing in France and Pakistan. Data were collected by employing qualitative research methods. As marriage is the collective affair of the family in Pakistan, it was considered essential to not only interview the spouses but their parents as well. Both corresponding families (the family of groom and the family of bride) in France and in Pakistan were interviewed to understand transnational marriage. The preferred pool of potential spouses is comprised of different layers of Punjabi kinship. Well maintained reciprocal relationships, cultural preferences to arrange marriages within kin, trust on acquaintances and to avoid the risk of anonymity were considered key determinants to define the primary spouse selection criteria. These determinants are supplemented by the complimentary criteria, including education, age, morality, and behavioral traits. Once primary and complimentary criteria are met, both generations (parents and their children) negotiate the adequacy of potential spouse to reach to the final decision of marriage. Family’s obligations, children’s capital, the interplay of authority, resistance and the kin, family’s marriage history, preserving the roots, and the transnational trust between the siblings determine the adequacy of a spouse as well as of the marriage. Though transnational Pakistani marriages follow the traditional patterns to celebrate marriage, nonetheless, migration has introduced some important alterations to different norms as practiced in Pakistan. In the similar vein, the family and household structure are undergoing transition due to their simultaneous presence between here and there. Transnational marriages maintain transnational links by inscribing the cultural values for family and marriage. However, the relationships across gender and generation are on the move by carrying the cultural influences from the host society.

À l’ère de la globalisation, il est important de réfléchir sur les réalités qui font que cette globalisation puisse se réaliser. Dans l’étude des faits sociaux, le corps devient un des fondements de socialisation dans des sociétés dites traditionnelles, mais aussi dans des sociétés modernes. Le Mariage Traditionnel Bantu est une des pratiques sociales du corps qui, même aujourd’hui, résiste encore aux modèles imposés de l’intérieur et de l’extérieur de sa culture. Nous nous interrogeons constamment sur les raisons de cette résistance. Pour comprendre, nous avons privilégié l’observation participante de l’ensemble du trajet cérémonial donnant lieu à cette réalité chez les Kongo d’Angola, à travers une incursion dans son histoire et sa culture. Nous avons aussi opté pour des interviews dans un esprit d’ouverture et de découverte. Sans fermer la porte au nouveau monde et en consonance à l’évolution sociale, le Corps résistant du Mariage Traditionnel Kongo se caractérise comme un corps métis. Notre interaction a été menée surtout autour des mots suivants : corps, mariage, résistance, famille, parenté, métissage, société, État, Église, identité. / In the era of globalization, it is important to reflect on the realities that make this globalization possible. In the study of the social facts, the body becomes one of the foundations of socialization in societies referred to as traditional, but also in the modern societies. The traditional wedding of Bantu is one of the social practices of the body that, even today, resists the models imposed inside and outside of this culture. We are asking ourselves constantly about the reasons of this resistance. To understand, we have privileged the participating observation of the all ceremonial path, giving rise to this reality by the Kongo people of Angola, through an incursion in the history and his culture. We have also taken the option of interviews in a spirit of discovering and to have an open mind. Without closing the door to the new world and in consonance to the social evolution, the body resistance of the traditional wedding in Kongo is characterized as a crossbred body. Our interaction has been guided by the following words: body, wedding, resistance, family, society, state, church, identity, relationship and crossbreeding.