Family as Context

Abstract

Within the last decade, discourse analysts have delved into the private sphere to examine the institution of the family. Analysts have noted how the family is a fertile research site and how investigation of family interaction gives, among other things, crucial insight into the intricate relational struggles between parents and their children. Considered a micro institution, the family provides the day-to-day context in which relations of power and connection are enacted, and human bonds are either severed or forged. In this respect, it is a key social institution, one “that mediates the individual and the social, with identifiable structures, functions, and hierarchies” (Sarangi, 2006, p. 403).