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This volume explores the impact of social, cultural, structural, network and dynamic transactional processes on the conduct of relationships. In so doing, it makes a compelling case for research to be directed away from over-application of individual perspectives and towards inclusion of contextual factors.
Confronting the practical realities against which individuals may struggle to manage relationships, contributors focus on such issues as: limits on opportunity and freedom; coercive family norms; responsibilities; poverty; and prejudice.
List of contents
Social Structure and Relationships - Graham Allan
Engendered Relations - Julia T Wood
Interaction, Caring, Power and Responsibility in Intimacy
Third-Party Influences on the Management of Personal Relationships - Renate Klein and Robert M Milardo
Felt Obligation in Adult Family Relationships - Catherine H Stein
Daily Life in Relationships - Niall Bolger and Shannon Kelleher
Celebrations in Personal Relationships - Carol M Werner et al
A Transactional/Dialectical Perspective
The Social Side of Personal Relationships - Leslie A Baxter
A Dialectical Perspective
About the author
Steve Duck taught in the United Kingdom before taking up the Daniel and Amy Starch Distinguished Research Chair in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Iowa. He has been a professor of communication studies, an adjunct professor of psychology, and a former Dean's Administrative Fellow and is now Chair of the Rhetoric Department. He has taught interpersonal communication courses, mostly on relationships but also on nonverbal communication, communication in everyday life, construction of identity, communication theory, organizational leadership, and procedures and practices for leaders. More recently, he has taught composition, speaking, and rhetoric, especially for STEM students. By training an interdisciplinary thinker, Steve has focused on the development and decline of relationships, although he has also done research on the dynamics of television production techniques and persuasive messages in health contexts. Steve has written or edited 60 books on relationships and other matters and was the founder and, for the first 15 years, the editor of the
Journal of Social and Personal Relationships. His book
Meaningful Relationships: Talking, Sense, and Relating won the G. R. Miller Book Award from the Interpersonal Communication Division of the National Communication Association. Steve cofounded a series of international conferences on personal relationships. He won the University of Iowa's first Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award in 2001 and the National Communication Association's Robert J. Kibler Memorial Award in 2004 for "dedication to excellence, commitment to the profession, concern for others, vision of what could be, acceptance of diversity, and forthrightness." He was the 2010 recipient of the UI College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Helen Kechriotis Nelson Teaching Award for a lifetime of excellence in teaching, and in the same year was elected one of the National Communication Association's Distinguished Scholars. He received the NCA's 2019 Mark L. Knapp Award
in Interpersonal Communication for career contributions to the study of interpersonal communication. He hopes to make it to the Iowa State Fair one day.
Summary
Explores the impact of social, cultural, structural, network and dynamic transactional processes on the conduct of relationships. This book makes a compelling case for research to be directed away from over-application of individual perspectives and towards inclusion of contextual factors.
