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The personal life perspective represents one of the most recent and significant developments in the sociology of the family. Developed primarily by Carol Smart (2007), it challenges the traditional approaches of functionalism, Marxism, and feminism, arguing that they are too focused on the structure and function of "the family" as an institution. Instead, the personal life perspective focuses on the meanings, relationships, and practices that matter to individuals in their everyday lives. This lesson explores the approach in depth and evaluates its contribution to family sociology for AQA A-Level Sociology (7192).
Traditional sociological perspectives on the family — functionalism, Marxism, feminism, and the New Right — share a common assumption: they treat "the family" as a clearly defined institution that can be analysed, evaluated, and compared. These perspectives ask questions like:
Carol Smart (2007) argued that these approaches are fundamentally limited because:
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