Genetic thinking and everyday living: On family practices and family imaginaries

Nordqvist, Petra

doi:10.1177/0038026117711645

Cited by 55 publications

(58 citation statements)

References 36 publications

(44 reference statements)

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“…After decades of favoring social definitions of family, we are now witnessing a paradoxical return to biological links in conceptualizing family membership, exemplified by the emerging significance of donor relatives (Nordqvist, , , ). Typically strangers who are related only by genetic material—usually sperm—donor parents and siblings are identified through shared DNA, often many years after conception.…”

Section: Who Counts As Familymentioning

confidence: 99%

Who Counts as Family Later in Life? Following Theoretical Leads

Connidis

2020

J of Family Theo & Revie

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A critical, multilevel conceptual framework provides alternative ways of addressing the question, Who counts as family later in life? The conceptual approach incorporates core ideas from life course, critical, and feminist perspectives, as well as the concept of ambivalence. Three meanings of the word count are used to address who should be included as family, which family ties are personally meaningful in the second half of life, and which family ties are significant sources of support. The article closes by exploring how to make research count: What are the policy and research implications of variations in who should be counted as family, who counts subjectively, and who can be counted on in mid-and later life? The macro-meso-micro framework connects societal and institutional arrangements to individuals and their family ties, emphasizing the need to balance individual and collective responsibility in order to support family relations across the life course.What do we know about family ties in the second half of life? What is the connection between family relationships and the larger social world? How can we apply what we know to better support family ties in later life? Good conceptual frameworks can help us answer these questions; they can also lead us to question the taken-for-granted and the status quo, and there

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Section: Who Counts As Familymentioning

confidence: 99%

Who Counts as Family Later in Life? Following Theoretical Leads

Connidis

2020

J of Family Theo & Revie

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“…It could be argued that recent sociological studies on how kinship is creatively produced through practices, such as genealogy (Kramer, 2011a(Kramer, , 2011b, assisted conception (Nordqvist, 2017;Nordqvist and Smart, 2014) and ultrasound technologies (Roberts et al, 2017) represent a form of embodied materiality (Holmes, 2018a, forthcoming). Such studies explore how kinship is actively and creatively negotiated via various mechanisms, including those which involve a focus on bodily material, for example identifying physical resemblances with others or perceived 'passing on' of personality traits.…”

Section: Inheritance Kinship and Materialitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Material Affinities: ‘Doing’ Family through the Practices of Passing On

Holmes

2018

Sociology

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This article explores how mundane objects are passed on through kinship networks and how these practices become part of the 'doing' of family and kinship. Using Mason's concept of affinities, I illuminate four strands of material affinities, each of which illustrates how passed on objects can reproduce, imagine and memorialise kin connections both biological and social, and in and through time. Crucially, I argue that it is everyday objects in use which reveal how materiality and kinship are woven together. By starting from the object rather than the subject material affinities are brought to life, illustrating how materials are inscribed with kinship both physically and imaginatively, but in turn inscribe kinship practices, operating as central characters in family narratives. The article stems from research exploring everyday contemporary thrift and involved one-to-one interviews and a Mass Observation Directive on the subject of 'Being thrifty'.

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“…The “sticky” and unending quality of family relationships interlinks with the perceived centrality of genetics, biology and blood in Euro‐American cultures (e.g. Nordqvist ). A core aspect of these “bodily” concepts of kinship connection is that a biological and/or genetic relationship “fixes” relationships, making them seem in “no sense elective” (Mason ).…”

Section: Donating Connectedness and Personal Lifementioning

confidence: 99%

Un/familiar connections: on the relevance of a sociology of personal life for exploring egg and sperm donation

Nordqvist

2019

Sociology Health & Illness

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In recent decades, reproductive medicine has become a widespread global phenomenon. Within the field, donor conception, and the use of donated eggs, sperm or embryos from a third party, plays a key role. Despite the importance of those individuals who donate, there has been scant research exploring their experiences. Seeking to contribute to the growing, albeit still small, body of research on donors, this paper advocates bringing the process of donating into dialogue with a sociology of personal life. It suggests that important new insights about the donor experience can be achieved by utilising such a theoretical perspective. The paper applies a broad framework of a sociology of personal life to demonstrate that the decision to donate reverberates within donors’ everyday lives and relationships, and explores, primarily theoretically, how it is that acts of donation bring such issues into play. To this end, the paper examines in detail three ways in which donating interacts with dimensions that are integral to personal life: “living” genetic connectedness, relationality and the intimate body. Ultimately, the paper suggests that a sociology of personal life shows light on new, unexplored questions for this field that demand greater scholarly attention.

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Genetic thinking and everyday living: On family practices and family imaginaries

Cited by 55 publications

References 36 publications

Who Counts as Family Later in Life? Following Theoretical Leads

Who Counts as Family Later in Life? Following Theoretical Leads

Material Affinities: ‘Doing’ Family through the Practices of Passing On

Un/familiar connections: on the relevance of a sociology of personal life for exploring egg and sperm donation

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