S12 Changing family networks - Les réseaux familiaux en changement
Organiser: Salles Vania
Centro de Estudio Sociologicos (CES), El Colegio de Mexico, Camino Al Ajusco 20, 10740 Pedregal de Santa Teresa, Tlalpan, Mexico DF, Mexico
Tel: +52 5 4493000 (ext.4116)
Fax: +52 5 6450464
Email: vsalles@colmex.mx
Outline: Within families strong ties of solidarity are formed; relations of power and authority are interwoven; networks for providing the basic needs of the group are constructed; obligations, responsibilities, and rights are defined in accordance with cultural norms, age, sex, and position of family members within the kinship system. The patterns adopted by the different facets of family life depend upon the way households are situated in the cultural context in which they are involved, as well as their ability to respond and adapt to historical, socio-economic, and demographic changes.

Rather than exhibiting an extremely rapid rate of development, transformations affecting the family are often slow and permeated with fluctuations, and are never univocal. We can state that changes in family life come about gradually, are marked by the succession of generations and vary according to the social class to which the family belongs, the urban or rural location of the household, and the particular features of the society in question.

Although there is a high degree of heterogeneity among the countries, which are marked by profound national differences and others derived from diversified subcultures within each country, we shall argue that several general phenomena are repeatedly recorded.

From a gender point of view, one of the most visible cultural transformations consists of some practices that question traditional values, with multiple and contradictory results: some put in doubt the norms that govern and control the lives of couples, while others question the roles usually assigned to men and women. Both tendencies indicate a weakening of conjugal ties and a search for greater gender equality. These phenomena occur parallel to processes affecting the distribution of power within the family unit.

Breaking with tradition also implies a loss of known referents and their substitution by others which, since they are in the process of being formed, function as elements generating new conflicts and tensions. Other general phenomena can be summarised in the following points, which seek to frame the socio-demographic changes that have taken place in contemporary families within wide-ranging processes:

  • A reduction in the average size of families; an increase in separations and divorces; an increase in the number of reconstituted families, resulting from the union of persons who are separated from their previous spouse; an increase in premarital sexual relations among young women; an increase in the number of households with women who work outside the home; the continued existence of underprivileged households and the increase of families living in poverty; an increase in single-parent households headed by women.

In order to discuss some of the trends shared by contemporary families, IUSSP is organising a session on the theme "Family Relations and Contemporary Culture".