[devi]

invitation for academmic discussions either by post or
electronicallyor in person. concept note is appended.
CRITICAL QUESTIONING OF CHANGING INDIAN FAMILY IN 21ST CENTURY
10th And 11th September 2009

Critical questioning of the family, the economy, government, religion,
and education arises whenever there is mobility: geographic (within
and between countries), social (up and down the class structure), and
psychological (in aspirations and expectations). In modern societies,
these kinds of mobility are commonplace. We live in a time when
certain traditional values are being challenged. Increasingly we are
opting for new values or an insistence that old values be more
effectively promoted. In family life, the formerly dominant values of
loyalty, duty, obedience, and self-sacrifice are slowly being
displaced by the standards of personal fulfillment, companionship,
sexual gratification for spouse, equalitarianism, and compatibility,
at least among the upper classes in advanced industrial countries.
Popularized accounts of topics such as divorce, marital infidelity,
adolescence, and the so-called sexual revolution are interesting and
relevant but may contain generalizations that are oversimplified or
untrue. Whatever the variations in the structure and functioning of
the family at different times and in different places, it is the basic
group in human societies. It provides newborn members with their
initial experiences of other human beings and with their earliest
definitions of themselves and the world in which they are destined to
live. Knowledge of the roles people have played in family dramas
through time and in different societies, the new roles and values that
are emerging or becoming more widespread, and the societal sources and
consequences of these changes in roles and values is a first step for
individuals who want a basis for making choices in family life.
Alternatives to the traditional nuclear family have become more
popular in recent times. The aim of the seminar is to understand and
to collect empirical evidence on various aspects of family change from
various parts of India and find out the logics behind them to
construct a theory of family change in Indian society.
The seminar intends to answer the following Questions:
• How the emptiness in our families is emerging?
• Is this emptiness gender specific?
• Will it always lead to severance of marital relationship?
• What are the reasons for this phenomenon?
• What is the role of the legal system in preventing this?
• How legal pluralism understands this phenomenon?
• What connections can be identified between fertility and political
regulations?
• To what extent are marriages and divorces influenced by societal
norms and legal conditions?
• How do cultural values affect family decisions, and in what way do
new family forms challenge general conventions?
• What are significant links between intergenerational solidarity and
social stratification?
Sessions of the seminar:
• Globalization and family relationships
• Changing family patterns, within and across generations and regions
• Alternatives for the traditional family
• Frequency of marital disharmony
• Family as a legal construct in the context of recent changes
• Processes of divorce, desertion and separation
• Live-in relationships and the changing structure of family in India
• Changing functional aspects of the family
Venue of the Seminar
R.B.V.R.Reddy Women’s College
Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh
India
Submission of papers:
Papers are invited on the following themes for the themes of sessions
and addressing any of the aims of the seminar.
Dr.M.V.Lakshmi Devi
Seminar Director
Head, Department of Sociology
R.B.V.R.R.Women’s College
Narayanguda, Hyderabad -500027
E-mail: