MACMILLAN Family Continuity and Change: Contemporary European Perspectives (Palgrave Macmillan Studies in Family and Intimate Life)

This volume provides readers with recent sociological approaches to family understanding, theorising and practices within the context of continuities and change, both across generations and during individual life courses. The contributors uniquely investigate the friction between persisting family needs and changing circumstances, between holding on to traditional family norms and adapting to fast-changing demands. Authors from nine countries develop and apply innovative theoretical and methodological approaches for a more differentiated description of European family lives at the beginning of the 21st century, and show that family sociology has achieved significant commonalities across national borders in Europe, thus helping our understanding of complex family realities. The book will be essential reading for students and scholars with an interest in family and intimate life, family sociology and policy, sociology and gender studies.   Review “The most appealing feature of the volume is a stimulating diversity of theoretically grounded studies on contemporary family lives from different methodological perspectives. … particularly inspiring for well-versed family scholars who aim at engaging in the search for answers to the greater questions this volume poses.” (Nicole Hiekel, European Journal of Population, Vol. 33, 2017) Review “The elegant combination of qualitative and quantitative methods that several authors put forward reflects the growing trend in sociological research that aims to deepen as well as broaden sociological knowledge.” (Ulla Björnberg, Gothenburg University, Sweden) “This collection will be a valuable resource for all family scholars.” (Isabella Crespi, University of Macerata, Italy) From the Back Cover This volume provides readers with recent sociological approaches to family understanding, theorising and practices within the context of continuities and change, both across generations and during individual life courses. The contributors uniquely investigate the friction between persisting family needs and changing circumstances, between holding on to traditional family norms and adapting to fast-changing demands. Authors from nine countries develop and apply innovative theoretical and methodological approaches for a more differentiated description of European family lives at the beginning of the 21st century, and show that family sociology has achieved significant commonalities across national borders in Europe, thus helping our understanding of complex family realities. The book will be essential reading for students and scholars with an interest in family and intimate life, family sociology and policy, sociology and gender studies.   About the Author Vida Česnuitytė is Lecturer of Sociology and Social Policy and Head of the Sociological Research Laboratory at Mykolas Romeris University, Vilnius, Lithuania. Detlev Lück is Senior Researcher at the Federal Institute for Population Research (BiB), Wiesbaden, Germany. Eric D. Widmer is Professor of Family Sociology at the Department of Sociology, University of Geneva, Switzerland.