Kinscripts

This paper introduces kinscripts, a framework for exploring how families as multigeneration collectives, and individuals embedded within them, negotiate the life course. Kinscripts comprises three closely -woven, culturally-defined family domains: kin-work, kin-time, and kin-scription. Kin-work is the tasks that families need to accomplish to survive over time. Kin-time directs the temporal scheduling of family transitions. Kin-scription is the active recruitment and conscription of family members to take on kin-work. The kin-scripts framework emerged from ethnographic studies of multigeneration low-income black families in the United States. We argue, however, that the framework is relevant to the study of the life course of mainstream families as well.