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The Stuff of Family Life: How Our Homes Reflect Our Lives
Does putting your smartphone on the dinner table impact your relationships? How does where you place your TV in your home affect your family? The Stuff of Family Life takes readers inside the changing world of families through a unique examination of their stuff. From digital family photo albums to the growing popularity of “man caves,” author Michelle Janning looks at not only what large demographic studies say about family dynamics but also what our lives—and the stuff in them—say about how we relate to each other. The book takes readers through various phases of family life, including dating, marriage, parenting, divorce, and aging, while paying attention to how our choices about our spaces and objects impact our lives.
Janning has joked, “I'm not a social scientist who uses large national datasets to illustrate family life; I’m the social scientist who asks people to examine what’s in their underwear drawers to tell stories about their family life.” From underwear drawers to calendars, The Stuff of Family Life offers an illuminating and entertaining look at the complexities of American families today.
Janning has joked, “I'm not a social scientist who uses large national datasets to illustrate family life; I’m the social scientist who asks people to examine what’s in their underwear drawers to tell stories about their family life.” From underwear drawers to calendars, The Stuff of Family Life offers an illuminating and entertaining look at the complexities of American families today.
- GenresNonfictionSociology
238 pages, Hardcover
Published May 5, 2017
6 people are currently reading
103 people want to read
About the author
Michelle Janning
10 booksJanning is a sociologist, public speaker, and writer living in Walla Walla, Washington. She teaches at Whitman College. She researches, speaks, and writes about families and intimate relationships, everyday life, homes and design, inequalities, education, community-based projects, Scandinavian life, childhood and parenthood, social science research methods, and popular culture.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 18, 2017
Although academic in a sense, The Stuff of Family Life: How Our Homes Reflect Our Lives speaks to the everyday reader through easy-to-follow text and language. The book consists of nine chapters plus an epilogue. The chapters cover topics such as "Families, Home Spaces, and Objects: Welcome Mats and Plumbing Pipes" and "Separated Families: Sofa Beds, Laptops, and Cell Phones." Each chapter is broken down into smaller sections, so I never felt like I had to sit down and read a huge chunk of pages at a time. Instead, I could read little by little in my spare moments. The book covers a lot of information about family dynamics without beating a reader down with academese. Janning truly combines education and entertainment in a nonfiction book accessible to casual readers through dedicated sociology students. I find her use of amusing anecdotes especially engaging. I found myself chuckling as I read some of the stories. Overall I am quite impressed with the book, and definitely recommend checking out a copy to anyone interested in the sociology of the modern American family.
February 14, 2018
In The Stuff of Family Life, Janning explores how everyday household spaces and objects reflect us (our beliefs, preferences, and personalities) and, at the same time, shape us. Each chapter concludes with a brief analysis of three theses:
1) Homes show how the boundary between public and private matters for families
2) Homes tell us about individual families, but also about broader social issues
3) Homes are not only symbolic, but also shape our lives
As an individual with a sociology degree, I thoroughly enjoyed how Janning demonstrates the multitude of information that a single item or design choice can convey. I also appreciated that the explanations of social theory and mutual influence of public and private spheres are put in terms that are accessible to everyone as well as the fact that the book was not overly saturated with theory and academic jargon. Though I think most people would be satisfied with the depth of analysis in this book (and therefore would give it a higher rating), I personally found myself wanting a more in-depth analysis of each object and the three themes the book returns to every chapter. Fortunately, Janning mentions several studies and sources that can satiate this desire. Overall, I would say this book is great for people interested in an introduction to the sociology of family life.
1) Homes show how the boundary between public and private matters for families
2) Homes tell us about individual families, but also about broader social issues
3) Homes are not only symbolic, but also shape our lives
As an individual with a sociology degree, I thoroughly enjoyed how Janning demonstrates the multitude of information that a single item or design choice can convey. I also appreciated that the explanations of social theory and mutual influence of public and private spheres are put in terms that are accessible to everyone as well as the fact that the book was not overly saturated with theory and academic jargon. Though I think most people would be satisfied with the depth of analysis in this book (and therefore would give it a higher rating), I personally found myself wanting a more in-depth analysis of each object and the three themes the book returns to every chapter. Fortunately, Janning mentions several studies and sources that can satiate this desire. Overall, I would say this book is great for people interested in an introduction to the sociology of family life.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews