Books by Jo Lindsay
Families, Relationships and Intimate Life Second Edition is a thorough exploration of the controv... more Families, Relationships and Intimate Life Second Edition is a thorough exploration of the controversies, contradictions and broad patterns that characterise contemporary relationships and families. Beginning with the conceptual scaffolding of families in their historical and cultural context this text includes the key cultural differences of ethnicity, class and sexuality. Theoretical perspectives including functionalism, feminist approaches and reflexive modernisation are also clearly outlined. Once the groundwork has been established this book delves into examining the complexity of contemporary family life, covering key elements in the life course - childhood, youth, partnering, parenting and ageing and both the positive and negative sides of family life including intimacy and violence. This edition has been extensively updated with contemporary examples from pop culture and current affairs and incorporates developments currently reshaping families including new technologies and social mobility.
This book explores contemporary families as sites of consumption, examining the changing contexts... more This book explores contemporary families as sites of consumption, examining the changing contexts of family life, where new forms of family are altering how family life is practised and produced, and addressing key social issues – childhood obesity, alchohol and drug addiction, social networking, viral marketing – that put pressure on families as the social, economic and regulatory environments of consumption change.
Journal Articles by Jo Lindsay
Water, 2019
Community engagement and stewardship are important elements in urban water planning if we are to ... more Community engagement and stewardship are important elements in urban water planning if we are to achieve the vision of water sensitive cities. The aim of this study was to explore how community members could participate in collaborative water planning processes that are adaptive, participatory and transdisciplinary. We conducted a case study of community participation in a water planning process in the regional town of Bendigo in Australia. Over a period of eight months, we worked with key stakeholders to generate integrated, collaborative and people centred
water planning. This involved a series of community champion workshops supplemented by focus groups with additional community members that ran alongside workshops with water and local planning professionals. The goal of the process was to bring together industry, government partners and community members to develop a 50-year vision for a water sensitive Bendigo and to identify the steps needed to achieve this vision. Key findings were that community champions were keen to learn and contribute to urban water planning in their local context. Given time and support,
community champions were able to distil complex ideas and make compromises to contribute to a shared vision for the city. Our findings confirm that community champions can play the role of knowledge brokers between water managers and the general population. The research contributes knowledge regarding the value of engaging community champions in urban water planning.
Abstract Adapting to water scarcity is a critical issue for many cities around the world as they ... more Abstract Adapting to water scarcity is a critical issue for many cities around the world as they respond to the influences of population growth, urbanisation and climate change. There is increasing recognition that geographic context has an impact on experiences of and approaches to domestic water use, but research comparing urban environments is scarce. This paper describes different domestic water cultures after the Millennium drought in three Australian cities—Melbourne, Perth and Brisbane. All three cities have experienced drought, or severe water shortages, over the past 15 years, and each city has responded differently. The experience of water scarcity and water restrictions imposed by governments impacted on people’s everyday lives in varied and profound ways. Drawing on quantitative data from a national survey (n = 5194) and qualitative data from focus groups, we found that a sense of water crisis led to household water conservation in Brisbane and Melbourne. In contrast, access to alternative water sources in Perth through desalination plants and household bores de-emphasised personal responses to household water conservation. The implications are that urban specific policies and interventions are needed to provide durable change in domestic water cultures. We argue that greater water sensitivity and responsiveness to water availability should be promoted in different urban centres, and that water supply solutions should be accompanied by initiatives that promote adoption of sustainable water practices and future resilience.
This article explores the interface between lesbian-parented families and mainstream society thro... more This article explores the interface between lesbian-parented families and mainstream society through the example of schools. Lesbian-parented families are an increasingly visible family form; they are diverse and complex and raise challenges for heteronormative social institutions. Based on qualitative family interviews with lesbian-parented families in Melbourne, we discuss the dialectic between schools and families. In many heteronormative school contexts family members were stigmatized and burdened by secrecy and fear about their family configuration. However, there were also a significant minority of family members who felt respected, supported and safe within the school environment. These parents and children were out and proud about their families, and schools had responded with acceptance in both the schoolyard and the curriculum. We discuss the contextual factors (including social location and family formation), impacting on and constraining the interface between the families and schools, and point to opportunities for change.
In this paper we document the experience of participating in novel randomised controlled trials f... more In this paper we document the experience of participating in novel randomised controlled trials for panic disorder -where face-to-face and Internet delivery of cognitive behavioural therapy are compared. Our analysis is based on 18 months of observation and in-depth interviews with 10 trial participants and 8 trialists in Victoria, Australia. We argue that the participants are positioned as active health consumers and approach the trial as they would other self-help practices. High levels of individual responsibility are assumed of participants in these trials, which they accept by approaching the trials reflexively and searching for information and strategies they can employ while building their health literacy on panic disorder. Although the researchers set the parameters of the treatment and interaction, increasingly the participants choose the extent to which they will comply with their defined role. For the participants the trial is one of the 'pick and mix' options of available treatment and we suggest it is a compelling example of contemporary health consumption.
It is commonly argued that many young people in Australia inhabit a culture of intoxication. Ther... more It is commonly argued that many young people in Australia inhabit a culture of intoxication. There has been little research on how young people find resistances within this culture. In this article we document how young people above the legal drinking age negotiate the dominant cultural logic of drinking to intoxication and explore how they conceptualise options of not drinking. The analysis draws from 60 semi-structured, mixed-method interviews about alcohol use conducted in 2007–8 in Victoria, Australia. We document the strong social imperative for young people to drink to intoxication at social events. Our results suggest that choosing not to drink carries the risk of social exclusion. To manage these pressures young people adopt specific socially legitimate subject positions for not drinking. Understanding the limited social possibilities and modes of resistance to intoxication is important for understanding the apparent hegemony of the culture of intoxication in mainstream youth cultures.
Problematic alcohol consumption is a major public health, health education and health promotion i... more Problematic alcohol consumption is a major public health, health education and health promotion issue in Australia and internationally. In an effort to better understand young people's drinking patterns and motivations we investigated the cultural drivers of drinking in 14–24 year-old Australians. We interviewed 60 young people in the state of Victoria aged 20–24 about their drinking biographies. At the time of interviewing, the draft guidelines on low-risk drinking were released by the National Health and Medical Research Council, Australia, and we asked our participants what they knew about them and if they thought they would affect their drinking patterns. Their responses indicate that pleasure and sociability are central to young people's drinking cultures which is supported by a range of research. However, O’Malley and Valverde claim that pleasure is silenced and/or deployed strategically in neo-liberal governance discourses about drugs and alcohol such as these guidelines which raises questions about the limits of such discourses to affect changes in drinking patterns.
Abstract
Background
Alcohol related violence is a troubling backdrop to the social lives and rela... more Abstract
Background
Alcohol related violence is a troubling backdrop to the social lives and relationships of many young people in post-industrial societies. The development of the night-time economy where young people are encouraged to drink heavily in entertainment precincts has increased the risk of violence.
Methods
This paper reports on 60 individual structured in-depth interviews about the drinking biographies of young people (aged 20–24) living in Victoria, Australia. Twenty-six males and 34 females participated in the research. The participants discussed their experiences with alcohol over their life course to date. The material on alcohol related violence is analysed in this paper.
Results
Just over half of the participants (33/60) recounted negative experiences with alcohol related violence. The findings demonstrate the continuing gendered nature of experiences of perpetration and victimization. Participants reported that aggression and violence perpetrated by some men was fuelled by alcohol consumption and required ongoing management. Experiences of violence were also spatialized. Men were more likely to report managing and avoiding violence in particular public settings whilst more women than men discussed managing violence in domestic settings.
Conclusion
The central argument of this paper is that incidents of alcohol related violence and reactions to it are specific gender performances that occur in specific socio-cultural contexts. In contrast to research which has found some young people enjoy the adventure and excitement of alcohol related violence the mainstream participants in this study saw violence as a negative force to be managed and preferably avoided. Understanding violence as a dynamic gender performance complicates the development of policy measures designed to minimize harm but also offers a more holistic approach to developing effective policy in this domain. There is a need for greater acknowledgement that alcohol related violence in public venues and in families is primarily about particular performances of masculinity and this is where policy should be targeted in addition to venue based interventions.
This study uses the ‘family time economies’ concept for a nuanced investigation of family work-ca... more This study uses the ‘family time economies’ concept for a nuanced investigation of family work-care experiences in 20 Australian nursing families. The family time economy captures information on the management and coordination of work and care responsibilities in families. Our study investigates how nurses were utilizing nursing flexibility to support time for caring for their families. We report on couple interview research which offered important insights into how shift work and family time are described and negotiated between partners caring for children. The study shows that the complex work schedules generated by shift work are reflected in domestic life, as nurses and their partners use available employment flexibility to ensure they have time for family care. The ‘taylorized’ allotment of time within the family competed with the desire to make, and preserve, free and unstructured family time, reflecting the incursion of, and resistance to, industrial temporalities in the familial sphere.
In post-industrial societies labour market de-regulation, the growth of non-standard work schedul... more In post-industrial societies labour market de-regulation, the growth of non-standard work schedules and shifting gender patterns in the paid labour market are re-shaping family care practices and work/family balance. In this article, the work/family arrangements and practices of nurses are compared with those of builders in Melbourne, Australia. The concept of family time economies is used to explore the intersections of work time and family time. Some change in traditional gender divisions of labour was evident in the nurses’ families but in the builders’ families more traditional gender specialization was displayed. The article contends that the organization of work time shapes the temporal structures of family life. Gendered patterns of employment in sex-segregated industries intersect with gendered family care practices in complicated and sometimes contradictory ways, but gendered differences at work and at home have a significant influence on how time for paid work and care is distributed between parents.
and disclosure of family configuration are important themes for understanding the experiences of ... more and disclosure of family configuration are important themes for understanding the experiences of contemporary lesbian-parented families. Drawing on multi-generational family interviews with 20 lesbian-parented families in Victoria, Australia, we explore how participants describe and present their families in public contexts. We found a marked difference in experience between lesbian-parented stepfamilies and lesbian-parented de novo families where children are conceived and raised by lesbian parents from birth. Family members adopted a variety of strategies when disclosing parents' sexual orientation in mainstream social institutions such as health care settings and schools. Some chose a proud, open strategy; while others were more private; yet others chose a passive strategy, particularly when dealing with health care providers, and a selective strategy when dealing with schools. These strategies demonstrate the fine balance that families must strike between being publicly authentic and creating safety by protecting themselves from negative attitudes.
and disclosure of family configuration are important themes for understanding the experiences of ... more and disclosure of family configuration are important themes for understanding the experiences of contemporary lesbian-parented families. Drawing on multi-generational family interviews with 20 lesbian-parented families in Victoria, Australia, we explore how participants describe and present their families in public contexts. We found a marked difference in experience between lesbian-parented stepfamilies and lesbian-parented de novo families where children are conceived and raised by lesbian parents from birth. Family members adopted a variety of strategies when disclosing parents' sexual orientation in mainstream social institutions such as health care settings and schools. Some chose a proud, open strategy; while others were more private; yet others chose a passive strategy, particularly when dealing with health care providers, and a selective strategy when dealing with schools. These strategies demonstrate the fine balance that families must strike between being publicly authentic and creating safety by protecting themselves from negative attitudes.
Health Care for Women International, 2008
Twenty Australian lesbian-parented families were interviewed in multigenerational family groups a... more Twenty Australian lesbian-parented families were interviewed in multigenerational family groups about the interface between their public and private worlds. Experiences of the health care bureaucracy were difficult, whereas many participants found individual providers to be approachable and caring. Three strategies were used for disclosure of their sexual orientation to health care providers: private, proud, and passive. Influences on the strategy used included family formation, role of the non-birth parent, geographic location, and expected continuity of care. Parents displayed a high degree of thoughtful planning in utilizing their preferred disclosure strategy in order to optimize safety, particularly for their children.
Journal of Family Therapy, 2006
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Books by Jo Lindsay
Journal Articles by Jo Lindsay
water planning. This involved a series of community champion workshops supplemented by focus groups with additional community members that ran alongside workshops with water and local planning professionals. The goal of the process was to bring together industry, government partners and community members to develop a 50-year vision for a water sensitive Bendigo and to identify the steps needed to achieve this vision. Key findings were that community champions were keen to learn and contribute to urban water planning in their local context. Given time and support,
community champions were able to distil complex ideas and make compromises to contribute to a shared vision for the city. Our findings confirm that community champions can play the role of knowledge brokers between water managers and the general population. The research contributes knowledge regarding the value of engaging community champions in urban water planning.
Background
Alcohol related violence is a troubling backdrop to the social lives and relationships of many young people in post-industrial societies. The development of the night-time economy where young people are encouraged to drink heavily in entertainment precincts has increased the risk of violence.
Methods
This paper reports on 60 individual structured in-depth interviews about the drinking biographies of young people (aged 20–24) living in Victoria, Australia. Twenty-six males and 34 females participated in the research. The participants discussed their experiences with alcohol over their life course to date. The material on alcohol related violence is analysed in this paper.
Results
Just over half of the participants (33/60) recounted negative experiences with alcohol related violence. The findings demonstrate the continuing gendered nature of experiences of perpetration and victimization. Participants reported that aggression and violence perpetrated by some men was fuelled by alcohol consumption and required ongoing management. Experiences of violence were also spatialized. Men were more likely to report managing and avoiding violence in particular public settings whilst more women than men discussed managing violence in domestic settings.
Conclusion
The central argument of this paper is that incidents of alcohol related violence and reactions to it are specific gender performances that occur in specific socio-cultural contexts. In contrast to research which has found some young people enjoy the adventure and excitement of alcohol related violence the mainstream participants in this study saw violence as a negative force to be managed and preferably avoided. Understanding violence as a dynamic gender performance complicates the development of policy measures designed to minimize harm but also offers a more holistic approach to developing effective policy in this domain. There is a need for greater acknowledgement that alcohol related violence in public venues and in families is primarily about particular performances of masculinity and this is where policy should be targeted in addition to venue based interventions.
water planning. This involved a series of community champion workshops supplemented by focus groups with additional community members that ran alongside workshops with water and local planning professionals. The goal of the process was to bring together industry, government partners and community members to develop a 50-year vision for a water sensitive Bendigo and to identify the steps needed to achieve this vision. Key findings were that community champions were keen to learn and contribute to urban water planning in their local context. Given time and support,
community champions were able to distil complex ideas and make compromises to contribute to a shared vision for the city. Our findings confirm that community champions can play the role of knowledge brokers between water managers and the general population. The research contributes knowledge regarding the value of engaging community champions in urban water planning.
Background
Alcohol related violence is a troubling backdrop to the social lives and relationships of many young people in post-industrial societies. The development of the night-time economy where young people are encouraged to drink heavily in entertainment precincts has increased the risk of violence.
Methods
This paper reports on 60 individual structured in-depth interviews about the drinking biographies of young people (aged 20–24) living in Victoria, Australia. Twenty-six males and 34 females participated in the research. The participants discussed their experiences with alcohol over their life course to date. The material on alcohol related violence is analysed in this paper.
Results
Just over half of the participants (33/60) recounted negative experiences with alcohol related violence. The findings demonstrate the continuing gendered nature of experiences of perpetration and victimization. Participants reported that aggression and violence perpetrated by some men was fuelled by alcohol consumption and required ongoing management. Experiences of violence were also spatialized. Men were more likely to report managing and avoiding violence in particular public settings whilst more women than men discussed managing violence in domestic settings.
Conclusion
The central argument of this paper is that incidents of alcohol related violence and reactions to it are specific gender performances that occur in specific socio-cultural contexts. In contrast to research which has found some young people enjoy the adventure and excitement of alcohol related violence the mainstream participants in this study saw violence as a negative force to be managed and preferably avoided. Understanding violence as a dynamic gender performance complicates the development of policy measures designed to minimize harm but also offers a more holistic approach to developing effective policy in this domain. There is a need for greater acknowledgement that alcohol related violence in public venues and in families is primarily about particular performances of masculinity and this is where policy should be targeted in addition to venue based interventions.