Abstract
In this chapter, we present the different types of family configurations that have emerged in contemporary society. Local family circles involve close relationships and reciprocal help between family members. These families are also characterised by close geographical proximity. Dispersed family circles also maintain close family contacts but relationships are moderated through larger geographical distances. Finally isolated families, where kinship ties are weak are identified. The chapter concludes with the observation that the rise in individualism, which characterises modern societies, has not jeopardised the intensity of intergenerational bonds or the existence of family groups.
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Notes
- 1.
See the contributions of these authors in the collective work by Susan McRae, Changing Britain. Families and Households in the 1990s, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1999.
- 2.
See the research of Claudine Attias-Donfut, 1993; 1995, op. cit. and Martine Segalen, 2010, op. cit; Jeux de familles (ed. Martine Segalen), 1991, op. cit. as well as the INSEE publications, Insee première, no. 600 (1998) and 631 (1999).
- 3.
“L’étude des relations familiales et intergénérationnelles” (ERFI). The French version of the Generations and Gender Survey (GGS), was part of the international Generations and Genders Programme (GGP) for the collection and analysis of socio-demographic population data from a large number of European countries over several years. The United Kingdom was not part of the programme.
- 4.
According to Florence Weber, “the household is based on a specific kinship bond: location in the proper sense of the term, coproduction and residence”. (Weber et al. 2003, p. 391).
- 5.
Even if the statistical analyses do not show a dependency link between marital status and local family circles, some interviews, in particular those with single women, reveal the strength of their relationships with their mother.
- 6.
According to Vincent Gourdon, this vision of a doting grandparent conveys “an incomplete or fantasised vision of the grandparents’ story most of the time”, (2001, p. 12).
- 7.
While the principle of equality exists as regards the management of family relationships on both sides, a tendency towards matrilatéralité, i.e. a preference for the wife’s line, can however be observed (Bonvalet and Maision 1999; Le Pape 2006; Jonas and Le Pape 2008).
- 8.
In the survey Proches et parents, it was observed that the local family circle was, all things being equal, more common in these professional categories (Bonvalet 2003).
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Bonvalet, C., Clément, C., Ogg, J. (2015). Baby Boomers and Their Family Entourage. In: Renewing the Family: A History of the Baby Boomers. INED Population Studies, vol 4. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08545-6_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08545-6_9
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