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:

• Morgan, D. (1996) Family Connections, Polity Press.
• Milić, A., Tomanović, S., Sekulić, N., Bobić, M., Ljubičić, M., Stanojević, D.: Vreme porodica. Sociološka studija o porodičnoj transformaciji u savremenoj Srbiji, Čigoja i Institut za sociološka istraživanja Filozofskog fakulteta, Beograd, 2008.
• Milić, A.: Sociologija porodice, Čigoja, Beograd, 2007.
• Allan, G. (ed.) (1999) The Sociology of the Family: A Reader, Blackwell Publishers, Oxford.
• A. Milić i S. Tomanović (prir.) Porodice u Srbiji danas u komparativnoj perspektivi Beograd: ISI FF, 2009.
• Tomanović, S. (2010) Odrastanje u Beogradu. Oblikovanje socijalnih biografija mladih u porodicama dva društvena sloja, Beograd: ISI FF. (28 – 31; 174 – 178; 205 - 250)
• Bobić, M. (2013) Postmoderne populacione studije. Demografija kao intersekcija, Beograd: ISI FF i Čigoja Štampa, str 61-85
• Beck U. And Beck-Gernsheim B. (2001) Individualization. Institutional Individualization and its Social and Political Conseqences, London: Sage, pp 54-101.
• Tomanović, S. et al. (2012) Mladi – naša sadašnjost. Istraživanje socijalnih biografija mladih u Srbiji, Čigoja, ISI FF, Beograd: 81 – 95; 127 – 147.