Like Family by Margaret K. Nelson - 9780813564050

Rutgers University Press

Like FamilyNarratives of Fictive Kinship\nAuthor(s): Margaret K. Nelson\nFormat: Paperback\nPublisher: Rutgers University Press, United States\nImprint: Rutgers University Press\nISBN-13: 9780813564050, 978-0813564050\nSynopsis\nFor 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 varywhether around age or generation, co-residence, or the possibility of becoming real families. Moreover she shows that different parties to the same relationship understand.