Essay \"Anthony giddens (1938) pure relationship cohabitation\" PDF

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Anthony Giddens (1938) Pure Relationship Cohabitation...

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Darta Dzenite European Studies Cultural Analysis

Dear classmates and dear supervisor, In my presentation I will briefly talk about Anthony Giddens and his achievements in his professional life – I will mention his most important books which are published from 1970s till nowadays and also what he has achieved and what kind of researches he has made during his professional life. Afterwards I will look what are the main concepts what he has discovered according to my topic about cohabitation. Therefore I will look at his article and also at other researches where he describes sever issues in the connection with this topic. Anthony Giddens (1938) is a British sociologist, is known for his theory of structuration and his holistic view of modern societies. The first one who involved outlining a new vision of what sociology is, presenting a theoretical and methodological understanding of that field, based on a critical reinterpretation of the classics. Most famous books of him are : 1) Capitalism and Modern Social Theory (1971) ; 2) The Class Structure of the Advanced Societies (1973) ; 3) New Rules of Sociological Method (1976); 4)

Central Problems in Social Theory (1979);

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The Constitution of Society (1984);

6) Consequences of Modernity (1990); 7)

Modernity and Self – Identity (1991);

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The Transformation of Intimacy (1992);

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Beyond Left and Right (1994);

10) The Third Way : The Renewal of Social Democracy (1998) Giddens´ ambition is both to recast social theory and to re – examine our understanding of the development and trajectory of modernity. Giddens has also made connection between micro and macro levels in society. On a micro scale, one of individuals´ internal sense of self and identity, consider the example of a family : we are increasingly free to choose our own mates and how to relate with them, which creates new opportunities but also more work, as the relationship becomes a reflexive project that has to

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be interpreted and maintained. Yet this micro – level change cannot be explained only by looking at the individual level as people did not spontaneously change their minds about how to live, neither can we assume they were directed to do so by social institutions and the state. On a macro scale, one of the state and social organizations like multinational capitalist corporations, consider the example of globalization, which offers vast new opportunities for investment and development, but crises – like the Asian financial crisis – can affect the entire word, spreading far outside the local setting in which they first developed, and last but not least directly influences individuals. A serious explanation of such issues must lie somewhere within the network of macro and micro forces. To illustrate this relationship, Giddens discusses changing attitudes towards marriage in developed countries. He claims that any effort to explain this phenomenon solely in terms of micro or macro level causes will result in a circular cause and consequence. Social relationships and visible sexuality (micro – level change) are related to the decline of religion and the rise of rationality (macro – level change), but also with changes in the laws relating to marriage and sexuality (macro), change caused by different practices and changing attitudes on the level of everyday lives (micro). Practices and attitudes in turn can be affected by social movements (for example, women´s liberation and egalitarianism), a macro – scale phenomena ; but the movements usually grow out of everyday life grievances – a micro – scale phenomenon. It is characteristic of modern systems of sexual intimacy and friendship that partners are voluntarily chosen from a diversity of possibilities. World has changed and it has become much more open and global and therefore people are not committed to some kind of cultural habits at least in the Western world. Giddens is also explaining that throughout of human history people lived in social settings that were fairly closely connected with each other. Whether in situations of work, leisure or the family, an individual usually lived within a set of milieu of a comparable type – a phenomenon strongly reinforced by the dominance of the local community in most pre – modern cultures. The deinstitutionalization of marriage refers to the weakening of the social and legal norms that regulate peoples´ behavior in regard to marriage. The rise in cohabitation is part of other major social changes such as : higher divorce rate, older age at first marriage and childbearing, and more births outside marriage. Factors such as secularization, increased participation of women in the labor force, changing in the meaning of marriage, risk reduction, individualism, and changing views on sexuality have been cited as contributing to these social changes. In the history marriage was a contract, often initiated by parents or relatives rather than by the martial partners themselves. The contract was usually strongly influenced by economic considerations, and formed

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part of wider economic networks and transactions. Even well into modern times, when the old frameworks of marriage had substantially disintegrated, the marital tie was anchored through an internal division of labour, the husband as breadwinner and wife preoccupied with children, hearth and home (although we should not forget that the labour force has always contained a considerable proportion of women) ; If we look in the modern society in the Western culture than we can clearly see that the marriage has lost it previous meaning and nowadays because of liberty there are more rights for people. Nowadays there are same sex marriages, also fictive marriage. That helps us to understand that in nowadays people are having more rights and also the laws are not so strict as they were before. Cohabitation is an arrangement where two people who are not married live together in a sexually intimate relationship on a long – term basis. Cohabitation usually refers to unmarried couples who live together without formally registering their relation as a marriage. Such arrangements have become increasingly common in Western countries during the past few decades, being led by changing social views, especially regarding marriage, gender roles and religion ; During the past decades, in Western countries, there has been an increase in unmarried couples cohabiting. Historically, many Western countries have been influenced by Christian doctrines on sex, which opposed unmarried cohabitation. As social mores have changed, such beliefs have become less widely held by the population and some Christian denominations today view cohabitation as a precursor to marriage. In Central and Eastern Europe, during the late 1980s and early 1990s, there were major political changes, such as the fall of Communist governments. These societies entered a new era of increased social freedom, less rigid rules, and less authoritarian governments. They interacted with Western Europe and some became members of the European Union. As a result, the patterns of family life have started to change: marriage rates have declined, and marriage was postponed to a later age. Cohabitation and births to unmarried mothers increased, and in some countries the increase was very quick. Statistics : Public approval in the United States for cohabiting couples has risen since 1994, whereas the blue line agree, the yellow one neither agree nor disagree and the redone disagree. Second graph : percentage of births to unmarried women 1980 and 2007, whereas we can see that cohabitation most common is in the Scandinavian countries, also France, but in Southern Europe countries it is not so popular in the society. In the world, Asia : The cohabitation rate in Asian countries is much lower than in Europe or Latin America. In some parts of the continent it is however becoming more common for young people. As of 1994,the rate of premarital

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cohabitation in Israel was 25 %. Cohabitation is illegal according to sharia law (for the countries that enforce it). In Nepal living together is socially acceptable only after marriage. There may be a significant number of unmarried couples cohabiting in cities, especially in the capital. But they prefer to remain anonymous or pose themselves as married couple. In Bangladesh cohabitation after divorce is frequently punished by the salishi system of informal courts, especially in rural areas. In India live – in relationships are legal. Recent Indian court rulings have ascribed some rights to long –term cohabiting partners. Female live – in partners have economic rights under Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005 ; In Indonesia, an Islamic penal code proposed in 2005 would have made cohabitation punishable by up to two years in prison. In Japan less than 3 % of females between 25 – 29 are currently cohabiting, but more than 1 in 5 have had some experience of an unmarried partnership, including cohabitation. Bibliography : 1) Giddens Anthony (1991). Modernity and Self – Identity : Self and Society in the Late Modern Age. Cambridge : Polity Press : pp. 80 - 88 2) Mestrovic Stjepan (1998). Anthony Giddens: The Last Modernist. New York : Routledge : pp. 47 3) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Giddens,_Baron_Giddens Accessed in 17 May 4) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cohabitation Accessed in 17 May 5) https://www.academia.edu/5467158/Cohabitation_in_Spain_No_longer_a_marginal_path_to_fami ly_formation Accessed in 15 May 6) http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/cohabitation Accessed in 16 May 7) http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/cohabitation Accessed in 16 May 8) http://berkeleysciencereview.com/the-cohabitation-effect-the-consequences-of-premaritalcohabitation/ Accessed in 16 May 9) http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2012/02/the-marriage-problem-why-many-arechoosing-cohabitation-instead/252505/ Accessed in 17 May 10) http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/03/the-science-of-cohabitation-a-step-towardmarriage-not-a-rebellion/284512/ Accessed in 17 May

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