Abstract
This chapter sets the scene for this book’s contribution to the study of families, personal networks, and life course in the early twenty-first century, by focusing on three European countries: Portugal, Lithuania, and Switzerland. The underlying argument of the book is that personal ties, at first sight private and explained by lifestyle preferences, depend on a series of social conditions which shape them beyond individuals’ volition. Personal networks go hand in hand with individual trajectories within a system constrained by the opportunity structures and normative orientations of each society. Such structures and orientations are the product of national histories, as well as classical stratification principles such as those associated with gender and social class, but also with the life cycle and generations.
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Notes
- 1.
Recodification based on ISCED: 1 – Primary education (No formal education, Pre-primary education, and Primary education or first stage of basic education); 2 – Lower secondary education (Lower secondary or second stage of basic education); 3 – Upper secondary education ((Upper) secondary education, and Post-secondary non-tertiary education); 4 – Tertiary 1 education (First stage of tertiary education); 5 – Tertiary 2 education (Second stage of tertiary education).
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Acknowledgement
The authors of the chapter wish to acknowledge sponsors that made it possible to carry out this investigation, the results of which are presented in the chapter. In Switzerland , the research was supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation and the Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research LIVES Overcoming Vulnerability: Life-Course Perspectives. In Portugal , the research was carried out within the national survey , “Family Trajectories and Social Networks”, coordinated by Professor K. Wall from the Institute of Social Sciences (ICS) from the University of Lisbon. In Lithuania , the research was carried out based on data collected within the research project , “Trajectories of Family Models and Personal Networks: Intergenerational Perspective”, coordinated by Professor V. Kanopiené from Mykolas Romeris University (Lithuania) and funded by the Research Council of Lithuania.
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Widmer, E.D., Gauthier, JA., Wall, K., Česnuitytė, V., Gouveia, R. (2018). Introduction. In: Wall, K., Widmer, E., Gauthier, J., Česnuitytė, V., Gouveia, R. (eds) Families and Personal Networks . Palgrave Macmillan Studies in Family and Intimate Life. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95263-2_1
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