WISHFUL THINKING AND HARMFUL TINKERING - SOCIOLOGICAL REFLECTIONS ON FAMILY POLICY

In popular and political debate there is currently a theme which domin ates discussion about the family and this is the theme of decline and destabilisation caused by the rise of individualism and lack of moral fibre. There is a wishful thinking intrinsic to these debates in which it is hoped that the family can be returned to an idealised state, un affected by other social changes, Recent sociological work on the fami ly interprets changes to family life rather differently and therefore offers an important counterdiscourse, Although there are certain limit ations to the new theoretical work on the family provided by Giddens a nd Beck, it is argued here that their work provides a broad understand ing of change which is not reducible to individual motivations and mor al decline, These perspectives are particularly important at a time wh en family law is engineering policies to change the very nature of pos t-divorce family life, Because these changes are based on a narrow und erstanding of change, it is suggested that they amount to harmful tink erings which misconstrue the wider context within which families are b eing transformed.