Like Family : : Narratives of Fictive Kinship / / Margaret K. Nelson.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter EBOOK PACKAGE COMPLETE 2020 English
• VerfasserIn: Nelson, Margaret K.,
• Place / Publishing House: New Brunswick, NJ : : Rutgers University Press, , [2020]; ©2020
• Year of Publication: 2020
• Language: English
• Series: Families in Focus
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (258 p.) :; 15 tables
• Other title: Frontmatter --; Contents --; Preface --; Introduction --; Part I. True Life Stories --; 1. The Texture and Dynamics of Like-Sibling Bonds --; 2. The Limits of Like-Sibling Bonds --; Part II. One-Act Plays --; 3. Guest Teens --; 4. Host Families --; Part III. Fairy Tales --; 5. Unofficial Children --; 6. Informal Parents --; Conclusion. Reconsidering Kinship --; Appendix A. Respondents --; Appendix B. Studying Fictive Kinship and Informal Adoption --; Acknowledgments --; Notes --; Bibliography --; Index --; About the Author
• Format: Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
• ISBN: 9780813564074; 9783110704716; 9783110704518; 9783110704723; 9783110704549; 9783110690330
• DOI: 10.36019/9780813564074?locatt=mode:legacy
• Access: restricted access
• Hierarchical level: Monograph
• Statement of Responsibility: Margaret K. Nelson.

For decades, social scientists have assumed that “fictive kinship” is a phenomenon associated only with marginal peoples and people of color in the United States. In this innovative book, Nelson reveals the frequency, texture and dynamics of relationships which are felt to be “like family” among the white middle-class. Drawing on extensive, in-depth interviews, Nelson describes the quandaries and contradictions, delight and anxiety, benefits and costs, choice and obligation in these relationships. She shows the ways these fictive kinships are similar to one another as well as the ways they vary—whether around age or generation, co-residence, or the possibility of becoming “real” families. Moreover she shows that different parties to the same relationship understand them in some similar – and some very different – ways. Theoretically rich and beautifully written, the book is accessible to the general public while breaking new ground for scholars in the field of family studies.