Title

Constructing Family: A Typology Of Voluntary Kin

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

5-1-2010

Publication Title

Journal Of Social And Personal Relationships

Department

Communication Studies

Abstract

This study explored how participants discursively rendered voluntary kin relationships sensical and legitimate. Interpretive analyses of 110 interviews revealed four main types of voluntary kin: (i) substitute family, (ii) supplemental family, (iii) convenience family, and (iv) extended family. These types were rendered sensical and legitimated by drawing on the discourse of the traditional family. Except for the extended family, three of four voluntary kin family types were justified by an attributed deficit in the blood and legal family. Because voluntary kin relationships are not based on the traditional criteria of association by blood or law, members experience them as potentially challenging, requiring discursive work to render them sensical and legitimate to others.

Volume

27

Issue

3

pp.

388-407

ISSN

0265-4075

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