Reference no: EM133305748

Assignment:

1. Your friend is getting married, and they confide in you that they see they look forward to a long happy life with their partner and 1.6 children. Gently explain using arguments from our readings and classroom discussion that they should have a backup plan. In your answer: (1) explain to your friend the confluence of very particular economic and cultural circumstances that made the nuclear family the dominant familial form in North America for a brief time, (2) the reasons this dominance did not last and why this type of family is increasingly 'fragile'.

2. While everyone else is helping clear the dinner dishes, your uncle Tony sits down with a whiskey and grabs a book entitled, "A brief History of Neoliberalism." When you approach to gently suggest he help like everybody else, you are met with a tirade. What the hell does this mean?

"The process of neoliberalization has, however, entailed much 'creative destruction', not only of prior institutional frameworks and powers (even challenging traditional forms of state sovereignty) but also of divisions of labour, social relations, welfare provisions, technological mixes, ways of life and thought, reproductive activities, attachments to the land and habits of the heart. In so far as neoliberalism values market exchange as 'an ethic in itself, capable of acting as a guide to all human action, and substituting for all previously held ethical beliefs', it emphasizes the significance of contractual relations in the marketplace. It holds that the social good will be maximized by maximizing the reach and frequency of market transactions, and it seeks to bring all human action into the domain of the market."

Explain what neoliberalism is, referring to ideas from the quote, but using clear language and examples from real life.