Abstract
The changing patterns of family formation and dissolution have fuelled debate on the status of the family in contemporary societies. The diagnosis varies from descriptions of the family as a ‘zombie category’, drained of substance, to an emphasis on the resilience and the surprising stability of the family as an institution. This debate is the starting point for the anthology Families and Kinship in Contemporary Europe: Rules and Practices of Relatedness, edited by Riitta Jallinoja and Eric D. Widmer. The book is part of the series Palgrave Macmillan Studies in Family and Intimate life devoted to sociological and research-based explorations of (changing) intimate relationships and family organization. The aim of the anthology is arriving at an understanding of contemporary families by approaching from two levels: exploring family practices and how people do families, and by identifying the structures that govern these practices.
The book is in five parts. The Introduction begins by outlining the term relatedness and the anthology’s theoretical position. In part two we are introduced to the first of the empirical chapters. This part is about family assemblages or family gatherings using such diverse entry points as weddings, Christmas celebrations, displays of family photographs and obituaries to investigate the symbolic presentation of one’s family, the principles of family configurations and how the boundaries of families are drawn. Part three explores the transition to conjugal living and parenthood. The three chapters discuss the practice of ‘living together apart’ (young adults in relationships who are still living with their parents), the role of social networks in fertility decisions and transnational adoption. The next part gives four examples of the mechanisms of family formation later in life with chapters on how money mediates the couple relationship, intergenerational relations in the later stages of the life course, families after divorce and a non-empirical discussion of transnational families and care chains. The final part discusses family relationships as social capital and the book ends with a concluding chapter by the editors.
The anthology is mainly empirical with data from eight different European countries (Finland, France, Spain, Germany, Italy, the Czech Republic, Austria and Switzerland). Most chapters discuss data from one national context, while some bring in comparative perspectives. The theoretical point of departure is the tension between theories of modernization and individualization, on the one hand, and a perspective of relationality, relatedness and embeddedness, on the other. The ambition of the editors is to transcend the opposition between these two perspectives so that individuality and belongingness are seen as coexisting and intertwined with each other, and one aim of the book is to investigate this interwoven relationship.
In a theoretical chapter, Carol Smart discusses new ways of conceptualizing and representing family life. She provides a ‘toolbox’ of concepts that can enable us to better capture and reflect multidimensional lives. This toolbox includes the concepts relationality, memory, biography, embeddedness and imaginary. Both the Introduction and Smart’s chapter outline interesting theoretical approaches that have the potential to add depth to studies of personal relations and family life.
‘Relatedness’ is a central term in the anthology’s theoretical perspective. In newer anthropological literature on family and kinship the term is used to underline the shift from a structural understanding of kinship to an understanding of kinship as constituted in relational practices – in other words, how particular people living in specific localities do family life. Following from the editors’ emphasis on relatedness and family life as constituted by practices, one might have expected a contextual understanding of family life. Surprisingly then, the main weakness of the book is precisely the absence of a discussion of context. First, the analyses would have benefited from a description of the cultural and structural contexts of empirical findings. As it stands, it is hard to know if, and how, findings are culturally specific and reflect particular family cultures. In the absence of structural and economic contexts, the role of for instance national family policies, welfare regimes and regional labour markets in shaping family practices is ignored. Second, aspects such as gender, class, ethnicity or sexuality are not discussed, leaving an impression that the book is dealing with an invisible, implicit majority; namely the white, heterosexual middle class. The missing gender and power perspective becomes especially striking in light of Smart’s emphasis on the legacy of feminist theory in her theoretical outline.
One of the aims of the book is to ‘go beyond individual inclinations towards a more structural analysis, based on rules that have much say in the making of families’ (p. 11). These rules are identified in relation to the empirical chapters on family gatherings, but are held to explain ‘the formation logic of family configurations’ (p. 235). The editors conclude the anthology by highlighting three rules of family formation: the rule of genealogical proximity, the rule of bilaterality and the rule of equality.
The ambition to give a structural analysis of the making of families is exemplary, but it is difficult to grasp exactly what the rules presented refer to. On the one hand, the rules are presented as reflecting something fundamental and universal. On the other, they are abstracted from a few specific empirical examples, and it is difficult to see how they translate into other contexts. For instance, the relation between the roles these rules play in family assemblages and gatherings and the role they play in everyday life remain vague. There are important differences between inviting guests to a wedding, money management in a couple and transnational adoption. It is not clear whether the rules apply in the same manner in all these settings or if they are only operative in relation to the specific context. Consequently, the reader is left wondering what makes a rule relevant in one particular context and not in another.
In conclusion, the theoretical ambitions of the anthology raise interesting, relevant and timely questions in the field of family and kinships studies. Unfortunately, few of the empirical chapters employ the theoretical perspectives outlined in the Introduction. Most contributions struggle to lift the analysis above a descriptive level, and omit the cultural and structural context. The anthology thus contributes little of substance to the research field.