Continuity and Innovation: Canadian Families in the New Millennium, 1st Edition

Continuity and Innovation: Canadian Families in the New Millennium showcases how emerging and leading sociologists of the family explore the contemporary moments and experiences of Canadian families while investigating the past and extrapolating the implications of these moments and experiences for the future. While there is continuity in what remains important about family in Canada, there is simultaneous diversity and innovation in the definition and character of the meanings we assign to families and the practices and processes that we engage in. Meanings, practices, and processes significantly vary over time. Such variations can be attributed to differences in individual identities, interactions, and ideologies that are linked to gender, sexuality, race and ethnicity, class, age, ability, and citizenship, as well as social-historical context. This exploration of Canadian families is based on both respected secondary research, along with primary, original scholarship by the contributors, who are actively engaged as sociologists of the family. Contributors take various approaches to explore the family as an institution (macro focus) or as an experience (micro focus), using a variety of theoretical lenses, and sharing stories of activism or experiential learning in doing so.