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the three national contexts. On the one hand, we will provide informa-
tion on the composition of personal networks and how the underlying
mechanisms of proximity linked to kinship, co-residency, long-lasting
acquaintanceship, and gender homophily are negotiated and valued in
the three countries. On the other hand, we will reflect on the role of his-
torical pathways, welfare regimes, and social-economic conditions on this
process, as well as the role of individuals’ birth-cohort, structural condi-
tions (gender and education), and normative contexts (family-related
attitudes).
Changing trends in family and intimate life have been affecting indi-
viduals’ personal networks as they move through the course of their lives.
Personal networks are thus built in the intersection of historical, social,
and biographical contexts, calling for a multidimensional approach which
captures some of the processes connecting individuals and society (Elder
et al. 2003 ; Elias 2001 ). Therefore, we need to articulate the sociology of
family and personal life, the social network approach, and the life course
perspective. Theoretical debates on the development of personal relation-
ships have been framed by different hypotheses which address the trans-
formations in intimacy and family values and practices in late modernity.
On the one hand, individualization narratives have been predicting the
weakening of personal relationships, in particular, the decline of kinship
ties as a result of the loss of the normative weight of the family as an insti-
tution (Bauman 2001 ; Beck 1992 ; Giddens 1992 ). Family has been con-
sidered by some a zombie category (Beck and Beck-Gernsheim 2002 ),
losing its role as the privileged arena of social life, in light of the transfor-
mations in intimate and family settings. In this sense, individuals would
be embedded in more contracted networks and decentred from family
ties, which have increasingly been replaced by non-kin ties – particularly
friends (Allan 1998 ). This idea of network shrinkage was also reinforced
by some North American scholars who stressed the decline of social con-
nectedness and social capital in the United States as a result of a rise of
individualism and loss of community engagement (McPherson et al.
2006 ; Putnam 2000 ). Also, the pursuit of the pure relationship (Giddens
1992 ) and the exercise of choice in the context of a risky and unpredict-
able relational environment would allegedly drive individuals towards the
construction of more uncommitted and fragile bonds (Beck 1992 ).
R. Gouveia et al.