Families and Personal Networks An International Comparative Perspective

© The Author(s) 2018 131
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_5

5

Mapping the Plurality of Personal

Configurations

Gaëlle Aeby, Eric D. Widmer, Vida Česnuitytė,

and Rita Gouveia

Introduction

We start this chapter by addressing how focal individuals engage in rela-
tionships with their alters in the various contexts of sociability they expe-
rience and, in so doing, develop personal configurations. This endeavour
is of prime importance for at least two reasons. First, it makes it possible
to enquire whether the nuclear family has remained the primary unit of

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

E.D. Widmer
Department of Sociology, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland

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

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