Social Changes and the Transformations of Kinship Practices. An Ethnographic Approach of Non-Monogamous Family in Contemporary French-Speaking Europe

Wauthier, Pierre-Yves
(2016) Entangled Kinship Spaces: Ethnographic Approaches of Contemporary Public and Intimate (Re)Configurations (19.October.2016)

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  • Wauthier, Pierre-Yvesorcid-logoUCLouvain
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Abstract
Marriage rates have been significantly decreasing and divorce rates have been significantly increasing, over the last decades in Western Europe (Eurostat, 2014). In some countries, rates of birth outside wedlock are now close to rates of birth inside wedlock. New sexual and marital tropes and norms develop, largely influenced by the medias (Bajos and Bozon 2008). The definition of the family no longer overlaps the definition of the household (Bonvalet, 2003). The family may be defined as a geographically scattered network of affinities more than as a kinship group. These changes invite to focus on the notions of 'doing family' (Morgan, 2011) and on the interactions between 'family configurations' (Widmer, 2010) and their social environment. Everywhere, several cultural factors affect the implementation of the kinship functions (Godelier, 2004). Here, today, “single mothers by choice” seem to prefer to raise children by themselves (Mannis, 1999); and “polyamorist parents” do involve more than one (adult) partner in family matters (Sheff, 2014). Modern non- monogamous family occurrences question monogamy as a mainstay of family and Western kinship. It also raises epistemological questions in family and kinship studies. Are these modern family configurations a change in degree or a change in kind of kinship system (question inspired by Haraway, 2015)? This presentation highlights social and cultural factors contributing to non-monogamous family pathways and configurations. Ethnographic data gathers written and recorded life stories from non-monogamous mothers and fathers, online and field observations among non-monogamous parents, and a score of articles, books, videos, and websites produced or mobilized by the actors of non-monogamous families. Phenomena of non-monogamous family configurations are transcending political borders. Therefore, informants are selected in several Western European countries. However, the study is restricted to French-speaking informants due to discourse analysis purposes.
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Wauthier, P.-Y. (2016). Social Changes and the Transformations of Kinship Practices. An Ethnographic Approach of Non-Monogamous Family in Contemporary French-Speaking Europe. Entangled Kinship Spaces: Ethnographic Approaches of Contemporary Public and Intimate (Re)Configurations.