Welcome to the Saturday edition of The Conversation U.S.’s Daily newsletter.
Ohio State sociologist and social demographer Rin Reczek’s second book on families – “Families We Lose,” which was published this week – explores family estrangement, or when adults go no-contact with a parent, sibling or grandparent.
It isn’t a new phenomenon. But it is taking on a new shape, she found.
One of the things that struck me about Reczek’s research on estrangement was that politics and abuse rarely entered the picture. This wasn’t simply a matter of Trump-supporting parents being cut off by their kids over their political views, or an adult child, resentful of being neglected as a kid, turning the tables on their elderly parents.
Politics and trauma undoubtedly appeared in some situations. But even when they did, they served as a window into bigger issues, such as mutual respect, support and accountability.
Reczek explains how expectations for family members are starting to shift, from what she calls “compulsory kinship” – the idea that blood is thicker than water, and you support family no matter what – to “democratized kinship,” whereby anyone can become family, but no one is automatically family.
This week we also liked stories about the Colorado River region’s increasingly dire water problems, the rise of personal bankruptcies, and an article on another new book – about seeing biological sex as a mosaic.
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