Changing meanings of family in personal relationships: a cross-national comparative perspective
Author(s) | |
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Wall, Karin | The Institute of Social Sciences (ICS), the University of Lisbon |
Gouveia, Rita | Université de Genève |
Aeby, Gaëlle | Université de Lausanne |
Date Issued |
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2017 |
Research on family meanings and practices in late modernity underlines the continued importance of the bonds of affection and support in families, but it also reveals changing sets of significant family ties and a blurring between kin, ex-kin and non-kin, with commitments going beyond the nuclear family to include a wider array of affinities. Drawing on a configurational approach, the aim of this paper is to examine the plural meanings of family bonds in cross-national comparative perspective, by exploring the changing boundaries between family ties and personal ties in three European countries with specific socio-economic and historical pathways (Portugal, Switzerland, Lithuania). Three national surveys on the Lifecourse and Personal Networks of individuals belonging to two different birth-cohorts (1950-55 and 1970-75) were carried out in 2010-12. After examining the ties which individuals consider as “family” within their personal configurations, the paper analyses the types of “as family” networks and tests for the main shaping factors. Findings reveal commonalities as well as differences between countries. The salience of nuclear kinship ties emerges in all countries, as well as greater fluidity in the social construction of family bonds, in particular through friendship; but there are country-specific aspects with regard to the salience of kin and non-kin in family bonds, the categories of ties imbued with family meaning and the main types of family network. National context and birth-cohort are of major significance, confirming the influence of contextual factors and the need to consider such variables in future theoretical models of personal configurations.