What is it about?
Using 2001 census data, the paper assesses the geography of key aspects of the individualisation thesis - same -sex couples, births to cohabitants, and mothers' withdrawal from the worker role. It concludes that pre-existing social structures have not gone away, and that individualisation predictions are better seen as exaggerated abstractions.
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Why is it important?
Unusually, the article provides a statistical and geographical based critique of the individualisation theory, and so complements theoretical and small scale qualitative critiques.
Perspectives
One referee was quite upset, claiming that it was 'not possible' to assess individualisation theory empirically.
Professor Simon Duncan
University of Bradford
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Individualisation versus the geography of ‘new’ families, Twenty-First Century Society, November 2006, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.1080/17450140600906955.
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