Developments and Difficulties

Abstract

The previous chapter looked at some approaches to family and intimate life that might be seen as alternatives to the practices approach. This chapter focuses more specifically upon family practices, the ways in which the concept has been used and some possible criticisms of the idea. Since I first outlined what I understood by family practices in 1996, several people have referred to, used and sometimes developed the concept. The first section of this chapter will look at some of these developments including, as a more extended illustration, a British study by Julie Seymour (2007). The second section will look at one particular extension, a going beyond, of the idea of family practices that looks at the idea of ‘family display’ (Finch, 2007). In the third section I shall look at some possible criticisms of the idea of family practices and the ways in which considerations of these criticisms might be used to develop the concept further.