FAMILY SOLIDARITY 2.0: towards renewed solidarity in diverse families.

What we mean by "family" has undergone radical changes in the past decades. We can observe an increasing plurality of constellations of living together (partnerships) and raising children (parenthood) that makes it difficult to define what actually makes a family "a family". The many possible combinations of partnership and parenthood in our pluralistic society require that we conceptualize family as a more fluid concept that goes beyond the narrow legal and biological notions and definitions. We will call this "Family 2.0". The complexity of Family 2.0 has altered solidarity principles within families and between generations in family in ways that current legal and social frameworks, policies and institutions do not fully grasp yet. Family 2.0 gives rise to new questions and problems such as who has to care of whom under which conditions and how policy should react to this. The Belgian family law is too outdated for dealing with new solidarity issues emerging in Family 2.0, especially regarding (financial) maintenance regulations. Legal, moral and social questions such as who belongs to the family for how long or from when on, or who has which obligations or claims, remain largely unanswered up to now for complex families in Belgium. Hence, rights, duties and responsibilities between family members, especially for intergenerational care, are – not surprisingly – ambivalent and contested by different stakeholders. Consequently, the aim of this project is to lay the grounds for a new legal and social framework for intergenerational family solidarity, which we call FamSol 2.0. We investigate what contemporary solidarity in complex families looks like, what are its challenges and how can it be fostered. To answer this, we combine the academic expertise of family researchers from UAntwerpen, UGent, KU Leuven en Arteveldehogeschool with the insights and knowhow of committed societal stakeholders in project FamSol 2.0.

Keywords:FAMILY SITUATION, CARE FOR ELDERLY, LIFE COURSE, DIVORCE

Disciplines:Urban sociology and community studies, Applied sociology not elsewhere classified, Sociology of family, Sociology of life course, family and health not elsewhere classified

Project type:Collaboration project