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Brave New Stepfamilies: Diverse Paths Toward Stepfamily Living

factors involving constant negotiation and renegotiation of family commitments. There is a perpetual minuet between ideals and adaptations to all too real challenges. A compelling example is the situation of Australianbased Iraqi and Afghan refugees, whose older relatives were interviewed in Iran. Those relatives, except for those who have lived there for a long time, face very precarious lives, at risk of becoming stateless, with some ineligible for employment, education, or welfare provisions. Other relatives fled to Pakistan, India, Germany, Norway, Canada, and the United States. Many of the Iraqi and Afghan refugees in Australia also face very difficult circumstances, some rescued from a sinking smuggler ship, then detention in Australia. The sense of being unwelcome is palpable. Not surprisingly, given the fractured migrations of both generations and the complexity of international family networks that cover multiple continents, communications tend to be infrequent and fraught. The pain of dislocation is accentuated by limited access to communications devices, cell phones, faxes, computers, and even the perception of unreliable postal service. Lack of contact worries the migrants and their family members who express strong interests in keeping in contact. Differing expectations about kin support sometimes leads to conflict among migrants’ nuclear families. The book concludes with a model of transnational family relations, the book’s sole figure. Types, modes and patterns of care pivot on capacities (resources and opportunities) as well as obligation to care, with these mediated by negotiated family commitments including kin relationships, life course, and migration histories. The authors conclude that care must be made central to sociology, and argue that the evidence their research offers shows that care is so vital to human connection and continuity that it continues despite all obstacles placed in its way. Brave New Stepfamilies: Diverse Paths Toward Stepfamily Living, by Susan D. Stewart. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2006. 304pp. $34.95 paper. ISBN: 076193023X.