Abstract
The universality of “family” conceals the many forms which families take (nuclear and extended, monogamous or polygamous), the many social roles assigned to this social institution (procreation, economic production, socialization), and the many meanings poured into it (emotional comfort, tribal bonding, repression and social control). Bahira Sherif Trask’s book, in considering the family within the context of globalization, nicely addresses the multiple facets of this ubiquitous social institution. And she adds the analytic prism of gender to analyze thoughtfully and thoroughly the relationship between globalization and families.
Not to flatten complexity and conflate concepts, Trask layers the discussions of globalization, families, and gender. Seeing the theoretical and empirical intricacy of each of these notions, Trask takes care with the reification of social categories: universal concepts, from family to childhood to work, are scrutinized as hegemonic constructs which often constrain agency and voice. Indeed, the book begins with Part I, devoting this first third of the book to definitions and theories of globalization (Chapter One), families (Chapter Two), and gender (Chapter Three).
Part II examines in detail the linkages between globalization and particular topics from the list of issues that are core to the sub-discipline of sociology of the family. Each of the chapters follows a similar “funnel” logic: it starts with a review of globalization and the particular topic, then proceeds to offer a gendered perspective on globalization and the topic, then delves into analysis of implications of the globalization topic link for families. For example, Chapter Four is devoted to the issue of migration, reviewing current patterns of global migration, the impact of such migration patterns on social arrangements, the gendered nature of global migration, and the role of families in global migration and the impact of global migration on families. In a similar fashion, Chapter Five concerns matters of work, starting with a general review of “work” and of global labor trends, then proceeds to review the feminization of the labor force, and concludes with an analysis of work/life (im)balance and intra-household uneven attention to care work. Subsequent chapters, analyzing childhood (Chapter Six) and aging (Chapter Seven), follow a similar rhetorical-cum-analytic style. In each such chapter, Trask analyzes economic, political and cultural dimensions: economic analyses refer to remittances and labor force structure, political analyses refer to regulation and the public space, and cultural analyses to attitudes and identity. These chapters are rich with tales from different countries and world regions, with ample data offered in review of cross-national and historical patterns.
To broaden the scope even further, Part III adds a consideration of mechanisms and trajectories of globalization and families. In the three chapters included in this part, Trask considers the role of the state, policy, and social action. Here, she delves into the concomitant effects of twentieth century globalization—itself entangled with capitalism, growing inequalities, and decolonialism—on the welfare state and, mediated by a complex array of global governance, on women and families. Here Trask completes the framing of her book: she concludes with insights about the role of the modern state, itself challenged by globalization, for families, women and social inequality, therefore reaching back to her opening arguments, drawing from Bourdieu’s work, that domestic life and private life are not insulated from their wider social sphere. In this way, Trask’s analytic tone throughout this book joins a chorus of sociological work that combines scholarship with public agenda.
Throughout these discussions and analyses, Trask’s primary considerations are of gender, power and inequality, with notions of hierarchy, conflict, exclusion, and boundaries dominating her discussions. The main arguments are that “both globalization and families are each distinctly politicized phenomena” and that “a gendered analysis of globalization reveals that this phenomenon has implications for the construction of femininities and masculinities on a global level and that the process of globalization is itself a gendered one” (pp. vii and viii, respectively). Note her use of the plural form for most terms, befitting her commitment to problematize hegemonic or static social constructs. The book’s goal is, however, a humble one: to link the otherwise separate discourses and scholarships of globalization and of families. Trask convincingly argues for such a link and for the importance of a holistic approach to both bodies of work.
Despite the obvious import of this work to any academic discussion of globalization, Trask’s work here is, in most respects, traditionally sociological. She is emphasizing core matters for the sub-discipline of sociology of the family by highlighting the issues of life course, childhood and aging, inequality and gender. Yet, in intersecting families with globalization, Trask wrestles with the nature of contemporary and global social change. While much-needed attention is given to matters of rights and the market, this book nevertheless does not engage with other issues that are core to the traditional sociology of the family. For example, there is no consideration of family rituals, either formal (marriage, custody) or informal (life course celebrations, kinship rituals); similarly, sex and reproduction are considered only in a short and underdeveloped manner. Most importantly, the treatment of male roles (as men, fathers, and husbands) and of masculinity, while promised equal weight, is unfulfilling and suggestive. Otherwise, this is a thorough and organized book, which engages discussions of family and gender with the scholarship and research on the most profound and powerful of social processes, namely globalization.