The importance of significant family contexts that are not easily circumscribed with reference
to a household or a limited set of family roles has been underlined throughout the last two
decades by researchers. A strong interest for family relationships beyond the nuclear family
has emerged in the social sciences. The various contributions to this book develop a
configurational approach to families which emphasizes interdependencies existing among large
numbers of family members and reconsiders some of the central issues of family life in this
light: fertility projects childcare and socialization monetary transfers across generations
and support for the elderly relationships with grandparents uncles aunts and in-laws gender
inequalities divorce and other family disruptions and the importance of friends and
acquaintances for families. Beyond very real changes affecting the structures of family life
since the sixties the book reveals that basic forms of togetherness still underlie much of
what is going on in family configurations.
