Families in Converging Europe (original) (raw)

Finnish and Spanish families in converging Europe /

In addition to the legal and statistical data, Durkheim used a wide range of historical and ethnographic data in his study on the family (Lamanna 2002). 9 Emile Durkheim (1908) Débat sur l'explication en historie et en sociologie. Bulletin de la société française de philosophie viii: 229-245.

Family, daily life and social inequality in Europe1

Routledge eBooks, 2022

Historiographical approach The family is a fundamental concept in social science subjects and, in particular, in the teaching of history. It is a complex concept with many meanings. Perhaps the simplest is that which defines the family as the basic cell of social organisation (Chacón & Bestard, 2011). It is therefore the first set of people to which an individual belongs. In this definition, the term belonging is key because it identifies the existence of a strong bond of consanguinity or affection that unites people. Through the family, it is possible to study the configuration of social groups that structure a society, the domestic economy, demographic aspects, political culture, religiosity, customs, artistic manifestations, etc. Thus, from the environment closest to the individual, it is possible to analyse the behaviour of people in the natural, social and cultural environment. This fact makes the family a fundamental object of study for various social and human sciences such as anthropology, sociology, law, demography, geography, history and art history. Topics such as the family, the life cycle and inequality has been fundamental historiographical subjects to understand the structure of present and past societies. The study of the family in Europe started in the 1950s in connection with demographic studies, and in the 1970s and 1980s it developed. The family became a relevant historical category based on the dominant historiographical school of thought, the Annals school. Interest in studying mentalities, sexuality and childhood placed daily life at the heart of research, and various studies were published by such notable authors as Le Goff (1988) and Foucault (1976, 1984a y 1984b). In the mid-1980s, the Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure, driven by the works of Peter Laslett (Laslett, 1989; Wall et al., 1983), stood out in the field of family studies. In this period, influential research was produced in the field of historical social anthropology, which focused on family models and their evolution over time.

Temporalities and Transitions of Family History in Europe: Competing Accounts

Standard collective publications on European family history manifest large differences in their temporal structure. This article examines three examples from different countries and currents of research for the last five centuries. It discusses the question of whether, and to which degree, time theory can be applied to adjust and balance investigations of the domestic domain in the long run. For that purpose, this article uses the theoretical framework of US-American scholar Andrew Abbott. His work has provided important inputs for contemporary family research. Can we also use it for long-term investigations?

Families in Europe

Portuguese Journal of Social Science, 2007

Analysing data from the European Social Survey, in this article we try to capture the main features of European families. Accounting for the changing trends of the last forty years in family arrangements, practices and values we also discuss some theoretical and methodological issues raised by the exercise of comparing countries. General configurations like family size, composition of the household, living arrangements and marital status are identified and analysed by clustering European countries. The insertion of men and women in the labour market, fertility rates and the hours of work of parents are another central focus of discussion. Our results tend to contradict some stereotypes. The majority of Europeans are formally married or living together, conjugal disruption is transitory for the divorced and the separated tend to return to conjugality. With modern ideals family is, for all European countries and with very similar averages, the most valued dimension of personal life. 49 PJSS 7 (1) pp. 49-84

Historical family systems and lasting developmental trajectories in Europe: the power of the family?

Last years have witnessed a growing interest in economics and cross-cultural studies in the role of the historical family as the instigator of disparate developmental trajectories. This new emerging literature has already provoked a considerable amount of controversy, involving debates on the precise underlying mechanisms, the role of non-familial institutions and the possibility of reversed causality, as well as the quality of historical data. Using novel historical database of European family this paper reaffirms the hypothesis that historical family organization could be one of the intermediate factors associated with developmental and value disparities among European nations today pointed out in earlier scholarship. We show that countries starting out from more patriarchal family structures in the past exhibit more hierarchical gender relations, more collectivist mindsets, and lower levels of economic and human development in the present. These findings suggest that the criticis...

Invitation to Read. Review on “A Family for Europe, A Europe of Families?”

Jurnalul de Studii Juridice

The title of the volume is suggestive: "A family for Europe, a Europe of families?". There is no doubt that the concept and contours of family relationships have changed a great deal in recent times. The case law of the ECHR and of the Court of Justice in Luxembourg (CJEU) has contributed greatly to these changes. But despite these changes, tradition has managed to maintain itself, trying to survive and live in harmony with the new. Has it succeeded? The work contains a total of 43 articles in which the authors deal with different topics dedicated to family relationships and topics that are closely related to family relationships. We dedicate this tribute volume to our colleague, PhD Univ. Prof. Emese Florian, as a sign of recognition and appreciation for his entire teaching and scientific activity at the Law School of "Babeș-Bolyai" University, for more than thirty years. The Laudatio presented in this issue of the magazine can be found in the first ...