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Constructions, reconstructions and deconstructions of ‘family’ amongst people who live apart together (LATs)

Yes / This article explores how people who live apart from their partners in Britain describe and understand ‘family’. It investigates whether, and how far, non-cohabiting partners, friends, ‘blood’ and legal ties are seen as ‘family’, and how practices of care and support, and feelings of closeness are related to these constructions. It suggests that people in LAT relationships creatively draw and re-draw the boundaries of family belonging in ways that involve emotionally subjective understandings of family life, and that also refer to normative constructions of what ‘family’ ought to be, as well as to practical recognitions of lived family ‘realities’. This often involves handling uncertainties about what constitutes ‘family’.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:BRADFORD/oai:bradscholars.brad.ac.uk:10454/11331
Date19 September 2016
CreatorsStoilova, M., Roseneil, S., Carter, J., Duncan, Simon, Phillips, M.
Source SetsBradford Scholars
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeArticle, Accepted manuscript
Rights© 2017 London School of Economics and Political Science. This is the peer-reviewed version of the following article: Stoilova M, Roseneil S, Carter J et al (2017) Constructions, reconstructions and deconstructions of ‘family’ amongst people who live apart together (LATs) The British Journal of Sociology. 68(1): 78-96, which has been published in final form at http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1468-4446.12220. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving.

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