Families and Personal Networks An International Comparative Perspective

© The Author(s) 2018 1
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_

1

Introduction

Eric D. Widmer, Jacques-Antoine Gauthier,

Karin Wall, Vida Česnuitytė, and Rita Gouveia

This book presents original research findings on personal networks and
life trajectories in three European countries in the early twenty-first cen-
tury: Portugal, Lithuania, and Switzerland. Its underlying argument is
that personal ties, at first sight private and explained by lifestyle prefer-
ences or personality, depend on a series of social conditions which shape

E.D. Widmer (*)
Department of Sociology, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland

J.-A. Gauthier
Life Course and Social Inequality Research Centre, University of Lausanne,
Lausanne, Switzerland

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

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

R. Gouveia
Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal