Families and Personal Networks An International Comparative Perspective

© The Author(s) 2018 99
K. Wall et al. (eds.), Families and Personal Networks, Palgrave Macmillan Studies in
Family and Intimate Life, https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95263-2_4

4

Changing Meanings of Family

in Personal Relationships:

A Comparative Perspective

Karin Wall, Rita Gouveia, Gaëlle Aeby,

and Vida Česnuitytė

Introduction: Research Issues and Theoretical

Framework

Research on family meanings and practices in late modernity underlines
the continued importance of the bonds of affection and support in fami-
lies, but it also reveals changing sets of close relatives and a blurring
between close kin, extended kin, non-kin, and ex-kin in family networks.

K. Wall (*)
Institute of Social Sciences (ICS), University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal

R. Gouveia
Institute of Social Sciences (ICS), University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal

G. Aeby
Life Course and Inequality Research Centre, University of Lausanne,
Lausanne, Switzerland

V. Česnuitytė
Sociological Research Laboratory, Mykolas Romeris University,
Vilnius, Lithuania