ESRC Seminar Series
Changing social norms, changing family law? Rights and responsibilities for
partners, friends and carers
Seminar 3
After the family: the legal recognition of friends, siblings and
partners living apart as carers
ESRC Seminar Series
Changing social norms, changing family law? Rights and responsibilities for
partners, friends and carers
Seminar 3
After the family: the legal recognition of friends, siblings and
partners living apart as carers
June 17 2005, Beechgrove House, University of Leeds
If you wish to attend, please email Simon Duncan [log in to unmask]
Programme:
Seminar 2 looked at marriage and cohabitation, and their legal regulation.
This seminar goes on to consider the importance of caring relationships
outside conjugality, and how these might be recognised legally. Again, the
morning papers explore the social changes which are taking place, while the
afternoon papers examine the legal implications.
10.30am Tea / Coffee
11.00- -12.00am Sasha Roseneil (University of Leeds)
"Care and connection beyond the conventional family: a new agenda for
policy"
12.00 -- 1.00pm John Haskey (Oxford University)
Demographic issues and measuring Living Apart Together
1.00 --2.00pm lunch
2.00- 3.00pm Anne Barlow (University of Exeter)
ŒThe law and significant others¹
3.00-3.20pm Tea/ Coffee
3.20- 4.10pm Simone Wong and Anne Bottomley (University of Kent)
'Caring and sharing: the inclusion of non-sexual relationships in
property adjustment regimes'
Close
For London based participants the 8.05am from Kings Cross arrives at Leeds
station at 10.20am; the 17.05 from Leeds arrives at Kings Cross at 19.33
Abstracts:
Sasha Roseneil
Care and Connection beyond the Conventional Family: a new agenda for policy
More and more people are spending longer periods of their lives outside
conventional family and couple relationships. This paper reports recent
research carried out as part of the ESRC Research Group for the Study of
Care, Values and the Future of Welfare on those who might be considered to
be living at the cutting edge of social change - the most ³individualized²:
adults who do not live with a partner. It suggests that much that matters to
people in terms of intimacy and care increasingly takes place beyond the
³family², between partners who are not living together ³as family², and
within networks of friends. Amongst the group of people interviewed, there
was evidence of a set of inter-related relationship practices: the
prioritizing of friendship; the de-centring of sexual/ love relationships;
and the forming of non-conventional partnerships. The paper argues that
there are strong grounds for policy makers to think seriously about how
recognition can be given to these increasingly socially significant
relationships, in order to facilitate the care and social support which they
offer.
John Haskey
Demographic issues concerning the measurement of ŒLiving Apart Together¹
This talk will recount some of the issues in planning a representative
survey to explore the subject of living apart together. It also will try to
put these issues into a broader historical context, by considering how
co-residential cohabitation has been measured in official surveys since the
1970s. Some of the preliminary findings from the survey have suggested that
the question wording used on living apart could usefully be refined - or
better still, replaced by a set of several questions. Despite uncertainty
over exactly what the exploratory question measures, a degree of coherence
is found in the characteristics of those reporting that they are living
apart together. Some of the demographic implications of the phenomenon of
living apart together will also be discussed.
Anne Barlow
The Law and Significant Others
Family law has historically regarded marriage as its epicentre. Yet as
social trends have changed it has gradually come to recognise other
relationships as within its ambit. This has to date revealed itself in two
styles of approach. First, the relationship between children and their
parents has come to be regulated largely independently of the presence or
absence of a married relationship. Second, adult cohabitation relationships
(both different- and more recently same-sex) which are deemed sufficiently
marriage-like have been included within family law¹s regulatory sphere. How
well-equipped is family law to deal with new-styles of couple relationships
such as LATs or inter-dependent care which are neither marriage-like nor
involve cohabitation? Should family law¹s regulatory net be looking to
expand in order to properly fulfil the role and functions of family law or
should we accept that it should draw a line and refuse to encroach upon more
individualised relationships? These questions and others will be explored
in the spirit of O¹Donovan¹s idea of family law as conversation (O¹Donovan,
1993).
Anne Bottomley and Simone Wong
'Caring and sharing: the inclusion of non-sexual relationships in property
adjustment regimes
Abstract
In recent debates in this country and elsewhere, the figure of the Œcarer¹
has been counterpoised to the Œsexual partner¹, to argue that any scheme for
recognition of domestic relationships should not be limited to sexual
partners as it ignores the real economic vulnerability of those who have
given care to relatives and now find themselves economically vulnerable.
Drawing on the legislation introduced in other Commonwealth countries such
as Australia, the paper seeks to consider how legal reform may be framed in
this country for dealing with the financial and property matters on the
termination of such non-sexual domestic relationships of care and support.
Most Australian states have, for example, introduced systems that are
presumptive in nature, with Tasmania being the only state to offer both a
registration and a presumptive model.
June 17 2005, Beechgrove House, University of Leeds
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Simon
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Simon Duncan
Social Sciences and Humanities
University of Bradford
Bradford BD7 1DP, UK
Tel: 01274 23 5233
Fax: 01274 235295
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