Family Relations as Social Capital

Abstract

Today, as stated by Beck-Gernsheim in this book, the need for a comparative analysis of the family in Europe is rather compelling, both because of the drive towards globalization as a distinctive feature of contemporary society and the diversity of family forms. Such a diversity emerges for two reasons: first, because of the growing differentiation of the constituent elements of the family (relations between the sexes and between generations) and, second, because of the growing complexity of underlying relational interlacements (Rossi, 2009). Sociologically the development and dynamics of the family can be understood if seen as a reflection of the morphogenetic process of society (Archer, 2003); this enables us to understand the intense differentiation processes at work in our contemporary society. The relational approach conceives the family relationship as a social configuration (Widmer and Jallinoja, 2008) or, better, as a relationship of complete reciprocity among the sexes and generations.