What do sociologists think about the importance of marriage ?
I’m glad you have asked this question. I can’t speak for all sociologists although I believe I have the majority of my peers with me on this one. You mean, of course, is there a body of informed work based on empircal evidence? and of course, there is. We can discount the anecdotal ramblings of Donald G. Dirkin’s team who’s 1992 ‘Study’ caused the tiny stir in the media that year. A ‘slow news’ year, I believe. The nub of my own paper is that marriage is a form of cement and could be said to hold the bricks of society together. (Or as my erstwhile colleague Phillipa Grochuck points out, keeps the bricks apart: possibly the more important function.) We’ll that’s a debate for another time.
