Abstract

Standard post-war sociological theories start from a theoretical image of the family as a unity. This article problematizes this image by argueing that seemingly contradictory findings of certain empirical studies are an artefact of the concept of family as a unity. The argumentation confronts theory and research about new stepfamilies in the systems perspective. Families that are reorganized following divorce and remarriage, seem to form an anomaly for the concept of the family in systems theory. The fact that relationships between certain characteristics of the family differ depending on which family member is interviewed, is theoretically 'impossible' but found many times in empirical research. Family scholars have often been confronted with similar anomalies in recent years. Therefore, a number of authors is now exploring new ways of conceptualizing families in sociological theory. Their 'new' family concepts methodologically imply diverse ways of marking out a field of family research, which are classified and discussed in conclusion.

How to Cite:

Van Bavel, J., (1995) “Het gezin als eenheid: een beeld met barsten: nieuwe stiefgezinnen als anomalie en uitdaging”, Tijdschrift voor Sociologie 16(3), 219–250. doi: https://doi.org/10.21825/sociologos.86227