Dynamics of Family Interaction: Family policy

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These are notes I'm taking for Professor Varenne's class on the Dynamics of Family Interaction. I'm using it as an opportunity to play around with wikis and shared community knowledge. Please feel free to contribute to these notes or share your ideas about how it can be expanded, changed, improved.

Aaron Hung

Contents

[edit] Family policy: The speech actions of the state

[edit] Readings

  • Varenne, HervĂ© "Families, education and the State in America." New York: IUME, Teachers College, Columbia University (pp. 38-end)
  • Wagner, David "The family and the constitution." First Things August/September 1994

[edit] Reading notes

[edit] Families, education and the State in America.

[edit] The family and the constitution.

[edit] Class notes

Link to Professor Varenne's notes

  • article in NYT
    • impact of history on evolution
    • genetic changes allow some members of the population to digest cow's milk
    • tend to be populations that depend on cattle
    • movie: The Nuer, about people who fought civil war in Sudan
    • genetic changes followed human historical changes
    • context as constraint
    • the more you change the overall constraints, the more you make a difference in people's lives
  • Engels
    • many of what Engels have written has come to pass
    • socialist groups against paternalism (e.g. building housing for workers within factory town); owner gets to control lives of the workers
    • marriage is a bad thing because it is exploitative
  • social contract
    • education, families as contracts
    • some contracts are limited to what is circumscribed; others have broader impact (e.g. citizenship)
    • marriage as a limited liability corporation
    • gays: why should we have marriage? it should not be determined by the state; why should married couples file taxes jointly?
    • divorce is also a contract; determines where child can spend the nights, etc.
    • countries like France, Swedan created many kinds of bureaucratic categories; some similar to marriage, some contractual
    • love as "diffuse solidarity"
    • changing status changes the rights and privileges of the relationship; becomes more diffuse
    • feminists, queer theorists: unequal relationships and status can create exploitation
    • some older couples get "fake divorces" in order to get Medicare
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