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The Families We (Do Not) Want: Constructing the Past, Present and Future Families through Rituals
The Families We (Do Not) Want: Constructing the Past, Present and Future Families through Rituals
Thursday, 14 July 2016: 09:00-10:30
Location: Hörsaal 41 (Main Building)
RC06 Family Research (host committee) Language: English
At the beginning of the 20th century, The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life (Durkheim, 1912) paved the way for sociology to explore, conceptualize and understand the power of rituals in our lives. Since then, rituals ceased to be envisaged in the restricted area of religion and the sacred; its study gradually extended to several dimensions of the everyday interaction and social imaginaries. Family rituals constitute no exception. Rituals have never been as studied and celebrated as they are now all around the world.
This session aims to discuss, across borders, the place of family rituals in constructing the past, present and future of the families we both want and do not want. Bringing together theoretical contributions and empirical studies on the “special” meaning of some events, days or occasions, it aims to portray and understand contemporary family rituals in all their multiplex dynamics: actors, spaces, times, feelings, symbols, actions and meanings. Ultimately, exploring the experiences, strengths, weaknesses and tensions of family rituals might allow us to (de)construct and contradict recent sociological theorization on family as a fleeting, fluid and elusive reality, and to understand its global place in the individuals’ struggle for better lives and worlds.
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