Book reviews

more is drawn out by Wacquant, not necessarily explicitly but rather through
the stories he tells.
In a similar vain, Wacquant manages to discuss bodily capital and the wheel-
ing and dealing that surrounds the boxing world without reducing action to
strategy (as Bourdieu sometimes appears to do). Agents make strategic choices
but they do lots more besides. Their strategies are only one aspect and output
of their agency. Boxing offers some of them a possible way out of the ghetto
through material gain, but it also offers them meaning, friendship, structure,
respect and recognition. For some, boxing is perhaps the only route to these
goods and is thus what Bourdieu calls a choice of the necessary but this is not
true throughout. Not everyone chooses boxing, even if it is necessary. Con-
versely, boxing is not necessary for all who choose to fight. We learn of one
pugilist, for example, a young French sociologist with more cultural, symbolic
and social capital than most who will read Body and Soul, who considers giving
up his privileged position to become a boxer. He might have his gains to make
by doing this. Indeed we could not meaningfully speak of choice if this were
not the case. But these gains are not materialistic, even by the broadest and
most cultural definition of materialism. They are born of an enthusiasm which
animates every word of the book from start to finish, an enthusiasm generated
in the gym by the networks and agents who populate it.
It is no doubt true that Wacquants attention to local particularities detracts
from the bigger picture that a different approach might have given us. One
can imagine that Bourdieu would have mapped forms of pugilistic capital,
elite gyms, champion boxers etc. on an enormous correspondence map,
demonstrating statistically what Wacquant can only hint at. This is scarcely a
criticism, however, since this would have been a very different project which
would not have achieved what Wacquant achieved. Moreover, Wacquant gives
us what the theory of practice arguably most needs at the present stage in its
development: sensitivity to detail and context.
In short, this is a great book which I recommend to anybody with even a
vague interest in embodiment, sport, or boxing.

University of Manchester Nick Crossley

Sociology of Family Life

David Cheal, Palgrave, Basingstoke, 2002, 16.99, 192 + xipp

This brief introduction to the sociology of family life has several strong points.
In the first place, David Cheal seeks to emphasis diversity and complexity. This
is reflected in his choice of the title Sociology of Family Life rather than any-
thing that refers to the sociology of the family. He reminds the reader of the
diversity of ways in which people define family members and the varieties of
ways in which family members relate to each other. His diversity extends to
include gay and lesbian households with brief but useful references to intimate
relationships such as friendships. Diversity is also apparent in the range of

606 The Editorial Board of The Sociological Review 2004

 Book reviews

theoretical perspectives that he discusses and deploys in his analysis of

particular topics. Thus the chapter on Money and the Family Economy adopts
a broadly transactional approach, although not to the exclusion of a discussion
of the structural constraints within which such transactions take place.
Complexity is apparent in the way in which the book is organised. Gener-
ally speaking, Cheal avoids the more conventional headings such as Couples,
Parenting, Kin Relations and so on and organises his chapters around
themes which frequently cut across more traditional divisions. Thus, for
example, there is a chapter called Entries, Exits and Voices Off-stage which
explores the processes whereby individuals move into and out of particular
domestic arrangements and considers those on the margins (fathers who no
longer live with mothers, for example) who nevertheless have some kind of
influence on these family processes. Other chapters deal directly with family
complexity, family priorities and family environments. Sometimes, this re-
ordering of the mainstream family topics can make demands on the readers
although at other times there are very real gains.
Including an excellent discussion of domestic violence and abuse in a
chapter called Intimate Relations rather than giving the topic a chapter in
its own right should cause the reader to stop and think about the darker side
of intimacy.
Another strength of this volume is its geographical scope. As in some of
his other works, David Cheal has read widely and there are few areas of the
world that are not referenced at some point in the book. He thus avoids the
parochialism that is a feature of some British and American texts on family
relationships. Yet he also avoids the dangers of suggesting some universal
family (from which one can select apt illustrations) by constantly reminding
the reader of the importance of historical and cultural context. Thus there are
brief, but useful, discussions of family practices in, for example, Palestine,
Hong Kong and Finland.
It is also worth noting that this is a thorough-going sociological treatment
of family living rather than a set of more or less descriptive accounts. This
means, for example, that the student will also find discussions of the compar-
ative analysis of welfare regimes and, perhaps inevitably, individualization.
But more importantly, this discussion lies very much in the tradition outlined
by C.Wright Mills and others, one which encourages the reader to explore
connections between his or her own experiences of family life and wider pat-
terns of historical and cultural change.
Each chapter begins with a brief statement of the questions to be explored
and the key concepts which are to be deployed. At different points in the book
there are boxes for the more advanced students, dealing with particular the-
oretical issues such as rational choice or social constructionism. There is a
ten- page glossary at the end and a very extensive list of references. The reader
would be wise not to attempt to read the book from cover to cover but would
probably be better advised to use the index and the glossary to follow up par-
ticular topics. There is much here that could be used as the basis for classroom

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Book reviews

work as the discussions on particular topics (care, the welfare state, family vio-
lence, for examples) are concise, lucid and to the point. Some of the larger
textbooks convey the illusion that there is nothing more to be said on the
topic. Cheal, on the other hand, succeeds in providing the basis for further
thought and analysis.
Inevitably perhaps, in such a short book, there are some omissions or over-
brief treatments of certain topics. Thus there are fleeting references to class
differences and race and ethnicity but there could be a more systematic treat-
ment of social divisions in relation to family life. Similarly I missed any dis-
cussion of the methods of family research. Nevertheless, this is probably one
of the most useful introductions to the topic currently available and it could
readily find a place near the topic of undergraduate reading lists.

Keele, Manchester and NTNU, Trondheim. David H.J. Morgan

Identity: Conversations with Benedetto Vecchi

Zygmunt Bauman, Cambridge, Polity, 2004, 11.99, 104pp.

Over the past few years Zygmunt Bauman has demonstrated a remarkable
ability to deal with big issues in small books. Following on from his discus-
sions of globalization and community, with this book Bauman turns his atten-
tion to the question of the personal troubles with identity. The book is
structured as a series of responses (answers is too focused a word) to stimu-
lations (questions it too strong a word) that were sent to Bauman by the
Italian journalist Benedetto Vecchi (who also has also written an Introduction
outlining main points of Baumans life and concerns).
The argument builds on the insights of Baumans analysis of liquid moder-
nity, and he contends that identity has become something about which men
and women are presently vexed because the old solid institutions that gave
identity a measure of inevitability and evident naturalness (institutions such
as the state as nation or as provider of welfare to citizens of the polity) have
now either withdrawn or become indifferent about that role. Today, we are
obsessed with identity precisely on account of the emergence of a condition
in which no one and nothing else is bothered about it on our behalf. Our iden-
tities are no longer given us at birth, now they are something that we are con-
signed to construct for ourselves, on the basis of our own material and social
resourcefulness.
In solid modernity identity was possessed of coherence. One was born into
a nation-state that would defend itself either culturally or through force of
arms, and within that nation one was also born into other fixed categories of
identification and identity, categories such as (that trinity banalised by socio-
logical orthodoxy), class, race and gender. Identities were given not made, and
therefore they posed no meaningful personal troubles, except for accommo-
dation of the self within categories of identity that were themselves presumed
to be obvious; and then the problems with accommodation were invariably

608 The Editorial Board of The Sociological Review 2004