No Cover Image

Journal article 362 views 15 downloads

Paths to a world without families: reasons, means, and ends in family abolitionism

Patrick Cockburn Orcid Logo

Contemporary Political Theory

Swansea University Author: Patrick Cockburn Orcid Logo

  • 67541.VoR.pdf

    PDF | Version of Record

    © The Author(s) 2024. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

    Download (543.23KB)

Check full text

DOI (Published version): 10.1057/s41296-024-00729-6

Abstract

The present article is a sympathetic critique of the most prominent contemporary articulations of family abolitionism. It examines whether queer communist family abolitionism is successful in linking an account of reasons for abolition, with an account of the means of abolition, and finally with an...

Full description

Published in: Contemporary Political Theory
ISSN: 1470-8914 1476-9336
Published: Springer Science and Business Media LLC 2024
Online Access: Check full text

URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa67541
Abstract: The present article is a sympathetic critique of the most prominent contemporary articulations of family abolitionism. It examines whether queer communist family abolitionism is successful in linking an account of reasons for abolition, with an account of the means of abolition, and finally with an account of the ends of abolition in the form of speculation on a possible world without families. Recent work by M.E. O’Brien has developed these connections in ways that have never been done so thoroughly before; but the rejection of states as an institutional form of political power leaves it unclear what forms of equality we could expect in such a world, and why coercive power would be unnecessary there. Family abolition is a utopian political agenda; but that utopianism needs to be constrained by a realist concern with issues of power, resources, and human capacities. This will require confronting trade-offs and imperfections within possible worlds without families. The recognition that there are many paths to a world without families, and many possible such worlds, is the first step towards aligning reasons, means, and ends and confronting the social and political trade-offs that this entails.
Keywords: Family abolition; States; Utopianism; Realism
College: Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
Funders: Swansea University

Similar Items