135turned into active relationships to matter and be included in a configura-
tion (De Carlo et al. 2014 ). But such reservoirs nevertheless provide a
structural basis on which meaningful relationships associated with the
kin realm can develop, and we therefore need to investigate them. Among
the different kinship relationships, some tend to be perceived as being
more important, like the parent-child relationship (Johnson 2000 ). The
couple relationship, creating an alliance between two individuals and
their families (becoming in-laws), is a foundation for the creation of fam-
ily relationships (Lévi-Strauss 1949 ), but the couple relationship itself is
challenged by the rise of intimate relationship breakdown and divorce
(Amato 2010 ).
There is an assumption that in modernity or late modernity the impor-
tance of kinship ties is decreasing, while the importance of non-kinship
ties is increasing. Some authors point out that there is a process of suffu-
sion going on between friends and family roles (Pahl and Spencer 2004 ;
Wall and Gouveia 2014 ), while others underline their specificities (Allan
2008 ) or focus on the circumstances under which friends play family-like
roles (Bellotti 2008 ). Friends are sometimes characterized as a chosen fam-
ily or are selected as godparents and become part of a fictive or spiritual
family (Weeks et al. 2001 ; Weston 1997 ). Besides friendship, other rela-
tionships may be a source of support, such as work colleagues (McDonald
and Mair 2010 ), social workers (Widmer and Sapin 2008 ), and
neighbours.
Based on the prominence of specific relationships mentioned by the
respondents, different scholars have developed typologies to assess the
relative importance of different ties. Pahl and Spencer ( 2004 ) invited par-
ticipants to generate a list of people they regarded as important, and to
place them on a map made up of concentric circles to distinguish various
degrees of importance. They then empirically identified five types of what
they called personal communities. One is based on family and another on
the partner. However, the three others are based on non-kin, one on
friendship ties, one on neighbours, and the last on work-related relation-
ships. In the Measures and Sociological Observation of Attitudes in
Switzerland study (MOSAiCH) which focused on discussion partners,^1
six types of networks are identified: family of procreation (18%), friendship
(17%), family of orientation (10%), and professional (9%), respectively
Mapping the Plurality of Personal Configurations