The Anti-Social Family

Paperback
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192 pages / 4 March 2025 / 9781804299593

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Paperback (1991)
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178 pages / October 1991 / 9780860915454

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Paperback (2015)
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176 pages / January 2015 / 9781781687598

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January 2015 / 9781781687604

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Uncompromising socialist-feminist critique of the nuclear family

Although family values are frequently lamented for being in decline, our society continues to be structured around the nuclear family. The Anti-Social Family dissects the network of household, kinship and sexual relations that constitute the family form in advanced capitalist societies. This classic work explores the personal and social needs that the family promises to meet but more often denies, and proposes moral and political practices that go beyond the family to more egalitarian caring alternatives.

Reviews

Barrett and McIntosh incisively question the standard marxist (and mainstream) claims that (1) the nuclear family is suited to the functional requirements of the capitalist mode of production, and (2) the family has declined and much of its work is now undertaken by the state.

The Women's Review of Books

Michele Barrett and Mary McIntosh have written an extremely brave, and with the benefit of hindsight, what must appear to be a very daring critique of the family.

Sociology