Contemporary Family Issues

Pre-requisites: To successfully participate in this course students must have background knowledge in sociology, anthropology, psychology and pedagogy; be familiar with methods and be proficient in at least one foreign language.

Course objectives: The objective of this is course is for students to be introduced to contemporary family issues, approaches to studying them and alternative paths to solving and addressing them in countries in transition.

Course description: The course covers broad issues in the sociology of family and intimate relationships, with the main focus being on family in contemporary and transitional societies. Contemporary Family: controversies and challenges; Challenges of domestic living - work and care, parenting and caring for family members. Contemporary family and the state. Family, birth and social strategies. Poverty issues faced by families in poor societies. Kinship and social capital. Marriage and partnership. Divorce and single-parent families. Modern parenting - asymmetry and reciprocity. Intergenerational relations: sources of familial tension. Common family processes. Family transformation and the future of family.

Learning Outcomes: Enabling students to, from a sociological and critical standpoint, address problematic questions that are characteristic for contemporary families across the globe. Teaching students to conduct professional research and practical work with families in our environment.

Literature/Reading:

• Andjelka Milić: Sociologija porodice,Čigoja,2001
• Andjelka Milić(priredjivač)Društvena transformacija i strategije društvenih grupa,ISI,2004.
• Sociologija 4/2004. (tematski broj časopisa)
• Tomanović, S. “Family Habitus as the Cultural Context for Childhood”, Childhood: A global journal of child research Vol. 11 No. 3 August 2004: 339 - 360.
• Tomanović, S. “Transition of Young People in a Transitional Society: The Case of Serbia”, Journal of Youth Studies, Vol. 9, No. 3: 269 – 285.
• U.Bek: Rizično društvo, F.Višnjić, 2001, str.173-225.
• A.Giddens: The Transformation of Intimacy, Stanford University Press, 1992.
• Bobić, Mirjana (2003) Brak ili/i partnerstvo, demografsko sociološka studija, Beograd: ISI FF i Čigoja štampa
• Bobić, Mirjana (2006) “Blokirana transformacija bračnosti u Srbiji – kašnjenje ili izostanak “Druge Demografske Tranzicije”, u Tomanović, Smiljka (prir) Društvo u previranju, Sociološke studije nekih aspekata društvene transformacije u Srbiji, Beograd: ISI FF i Čigoja Štampa, str 121-139
• Bobić, M (2007) “Bračnost stanovništva” u Đurđev,B.S, Stanovništva i domaćinstva AP Vojvodine početkom XXI veka, Novi Sad: Republika Srbija, AP Vojvodina, Izvršno Veće Vojvodine,str 131-146
• Bobić, M (2007)“Domaćinstva Autonomne Pokrajine Vojvodine početkom XXI veka” u: Đurđev, B, S, Stanovništva i domaćinstva Autonomne Pokrajine Vojvodine početkom XXI veka, Novi Sad:Izvršno veće,str 181-