Families and Societies is a major European research project funded under the Seventh Framework Programme with the aim to investigate the diversity of family forms, relationships and life courses in Europe, to assess the compatibility of existing policies with these changes, and to contribute to evidence-based policy-making.
Coordinated by Associate Professor Livia Sz. Oláh of the Stockholm University Demography Unit (SUDA), Dept. of Sociology, the consortium brings together 25 leading universities, research institutes from 15 European countries, three transnational civil society actors and a large number of national and international stakeholders. The project is funded from February 2013 for four years with about 6.5 million EUR in EU contribution.
The points of departure for the project are that family life courses are becoming more complex and diverse, that individuals’ lives are interdependent — linked within and across generations — and that individual life courses are shaped by social contexts and policies. Four transversal dimensions are integrated into the project: gender, culture (ethnic, migrant and cultural identities, sexual orientation), socioeconomic resources, and life stages. The project will:
- explore the growing complexity of family configurations and transitions across and within European societies;
- examine their implications for children, women and men with respect to inequalities in life chances, intergenerational relations and care arrangements;
- investigate how policies address family diversity and its consequences;
- identify likely paths of future changes in family compositions and related policy needs.
The project is organized into 12 work packages including management and dissemination activities. Substantive work packages address family configurations, new gender roles, the new role of children and assisted reproductive technology, inequalities in children’s life chances, childcare arrangements, intergenerational links, social inclusion/exclusion of migrants, policies and diversity over the life course, and foresight, synthesis and policy implications. All major European regions are represented in the project governance. Together with various stakeholders, government agencies, national and local policy-makers, non-governmental organizations and additional members of the scientific community across Europe, the project will identify and disseminate innovation and best policy practices.
In this project, AGE will provide inputs on the topics of intergenerational relationships, care issues and will help with dissemination and exploitation of the project’s results.
For further information :
- Please visit the Families and Societies website at: www.FamiliesAndSocieties.eu
- Contact Borja Arrue Astrain, AGE Platform Europe Project Officer borja.arrue@age-platform.eu
- To subscribe to the newsletter, click here.
Project number: 320116
Project acronym: FamiliesAndSocieties
Project full title: Changing families and sustainable societies: Policy contexts and diversity over the life course and across generations
Starting date: 1 February 2013
Duration: 4 years
FamiliesandSocieties is funded by FP7 SSH 2012-1 (Families in Transition)
Project News
Events
The project Kick off meeting took place on 7-8 March 2013 in Stockholm.
A video from the kick off meeting is available here (in swedish).
Press releases for the project’s launch:
