Chapter 4 in: Tshabangu, I., Ba’, S. and Madondo, S.M. (2021) Approaches and Processes of Social Science Research, Hershey PA: IGI Global., 2021
Based on critical theory, this chapter focuses on the first generation of Frankfurt School (mainl... more Based on critical theory, this chapter focuses on the first generation of Frankfurt School (mainly to authors such as T.W. Adorno, M. Horkheimer, and W. Benjamin). For discussing methodology in research, these authors are considered more representative than the younger generation (e.g., Habermas and Honneth) mainly because of the renewed interest in the direct critique of society and because of the failure of the younger generation to produce empirical research. The proponents of critical theory establish connections between theory and practice, in the sense that the social content of research must have human dignity at its centre. The difference between method-led and content-led research is discussed and considered central for this kind of approach to empirical research. Feminist research methodologies and critical race methodology are considered as closely associated with critical theory. These different approaches have developed autonomously from critical theory and are not directly related to it. However, feminist research methodologies and critical race methodology are expounded here because of their similarities to the critical theory of the Frankfurt School aimed at providing an emancipatory approach to empirical research.
Uploads
Papers by Ba' Stefano
This article concludes that the commodity form of labour affects the private life of parents, because ‘precarity’ means having to continuously look for jobs and remain ‘employable’. Precarious work is understood here in terms of the exacerbation of the historical process of commodification of labour, which is the social form associated to the ‘free market economy’. As a result, parents in insecure jobs struggle to get financial means for them and their children, but also struggle for a decent level of standard of life, which is here indicated by the term ‘dignity’. Dignity is a central dimension, as the struggles of precarious parents cannot be understood solely in economistic terms.
Parole chiave: Teoria Critica, nesso lavoro-famiglia, lavoro astratto
Keywords: work–family interaction; emotional culture; work narratives; occupational levels; dual-earner couples
Keywords: work; family; boundary; symbolic
Keywords: Work-Family Interface, Dual-Earner Parents, Symbolic Meaning, Work Constraints and Resources
This dissertation is an enquiry into post-fordism as cultural form. The recent evolution in family forms is analysed through the post-fordist paradigm. As a specific mode of social change, post-fordism is considered in a set of interconnections with State transformation, consumption variation, cultural modification and structure of personality shifts, which determine new scenarios for the social institution of the family.
Family is not the unit of analysis, its characteristics are considered in conjunction with new gender relation and post-fordist transformation of labour.
In the introduction is presented a general view on the development of new forms of family. Methodological issues are explained moving a critique to a part of sociology of family, which holds an epistemological position of conceptual and ontological “realism”. Instead the stress is put on the cognitive capability of the subject to formulate an “emphatic” concept of family.
In the chapter 1 is outlined the divide between fordist and post-fordist family through the consideration that the fordist family is an integrated system with a degree of autonomy, while post-fordist families are more directly influenced by economic structure and, at the same time, more isolated in their social interaction.
In the chapter 2 is reviewed the story of “fordist family”, with special attention to its interaction with the Welfare State. What has been called the “emotional structure” of family is also explored along with an analysis of the psychological features displayed by its members.
The chapter 3 explores the kind of link that can be established between the new organisation of work and the development of family forms. The main conceptual idea used to evidence that, is the “organisational mode”, which is explained as a process deeming the coherence of the totality of the social relations. The coherence in the social structuring of industrial relation and gender relation is setting up the conditions for the peculiar forms of post-fordist families.
In the chapter 4 the emotional structure of post-fordist families is analysed and the main conclusion regards the weakening of the division of social life in two spheres: the work sphere and the private sphere. The analysis of post-fordist consumption takes in consideration the needs of different socialisation of the new economy and brings at the surface the “communicational growth” as a specific characteristic of the new form of family.
Books by Ba' Stefano
This article concludes that the commodity form of labour affects the private life of parents, because ‘precarity’ means having to continuously look for jobs and remain ‘employable’. Precarious work is understood here in terms of the exacerbation of the historical process of commodification of labour, which is the social form associated to the ‘free market economy’. As a result, parents in insecure jobs struggle to get financial means for them and their children, but also struggle for a decent level of standard of life, which is here indicated by the term ‘dignity’. Dignity is a central dimension, as the struggles of precarious parents cannot be understood solely in economistic terms.
Parole chiave: Teoria Critica, nesso lavoro-famiglia, lavoro astratto
Keywords: work–family interaction; emotional culture; work narratives; occupational levels; dual-earner couples
Keywords: work; family; boundary; symbolic
Keywords: Work-Family Interface, Dual-Earner Parents, Symbolic Meaning, Work Constraints and Resources
This dissertation is an enquiry into post-fordism as cultural form. The recent evolution in family forms is analysed through the post-fordist paradigm. As a specific mode of social change, post-fordism is considered in a set of interconnections with State transformation, consumption variation, cultural modification and structure of personality shifts, which determine new scenarios for the social institution of the family.
Family is not the unit of analysis, its characteristics are considered in conjunction with new gender relation and post-fordist transformation of labour.
In the introduction is presented a general view on the development of new forms of family. Methodological issues are explained moving a critique to a part of sociology of family, which holds an epistemological position of conceptual and ontological “realism”. Instead the stress is put on the cognitive capability of the subject to formulate an “emphatic” concept of family.
In the chapter 1 is outlined the divide between fordist and post-fordist family through the consideration that the fordist family is an integrated system with a degree of autonomy, while post-fordist families are more directly influenced by economic structure and, at the same time, more isolated in their social interaction.
In the chapter 2 is reviewed the story of “fordist family”, with special attention to its interaction with the Welfare State. What has been called the “emotional structure” of family is also explored along with an analysis of the psychological features displayed by its members.
The chapter 3 explores the kind of link that can be established between the new organisation of work and the development of family forms. The main conceptual idea used to evidence that, is the “organisational mode”, which is explained as a process deeming the coherence of the totality of the social relations. The coherence in the social structuring of industrial relation and gender relation is setting up the conditions for the peculiar forms of post-fordist families.
In the chapter 4 the emotional structure of post-fordist families is analysed and the main conclusion regards the weakening of the division of social life in two spheres: the work sphere and the private sphere. The analysis of post-fordist consumption takes in consideration the needs of different socialisation of the new economy and brings at the surface the “communicational growth” as a specific characteristic of the new form of family.
Therefore, the symbolic side of the work-family interface represents the most important aspect of this research’s findings. Moving from a purely time and energy approach to the work-family boundaries, this study considers how working parents use emotional and material resources in managing the various commitments of their daily lives and how, in so doing, they are involved in orders and conflicts of home and work. These meaningful orders (and conflicts) come to signify the symbolic relevance of family, work and the spaces for these that working parents manage to shape.
The concept of boundary is important because it signifies spaces of autonomy for working parents and this research explores how people negotiate (and if they are in the position to negotiate) spaces of autonomy for the ‘emotional’ side of their life. The emotional significance of daily life for some of them is based not only at home, but also in the workplace. My research then explores the degree of autonomy that people manage to achieve in the work sphere as well as in the family sphere. Here is where this research fills a gap in the literature, as there is little research on the symbolic level of work and family boundaries and on how this symbolic level is continuously framed by work conditions and parental obligations.
In this regard, this research finds that the possibility of managing work-family boundaries is also connected to employment status and power dynamics, and such a relation reflects different patterns of the work-family interface within the middle-class respondents to this study. The dual-earner couple with children was chosen as the focus of this research as they represent a meaningful context of work-family tension, and also because the dual-earner household is now the dominant form among those of working age.
Santambrogio, A. (a cura di) (2017) Sociologia e sfide contemporanee,