Project
Changing families and sustainable societies: Policy contexts and diversity over the life course and across generations
The main objectives of this project are 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. The project will extend our knowledge on how policies promote well-being, inclusion and sustainable societal development among families. Our approach relies on three key premises. First, family life courses are becoming more diverse and complex. Second, individual lives are interdependent, linked within and across generations. Third, social contexts and policies shape individual and family life courses.
Building upon these premises we:
- explore the growing complexity of family configurations and transitions
- examine their implications for men, women and children with respect to inequalities in life chances, intergenerational relations and care arrangements
- investigate how policies address family diversity
- develop short- and longer-term projections
- identify future policy needs.
Transversal dimensions that are integrated into the project are gender, culture, socioeconomic resources and life stages. Our approach is multidisciplinary combining a wide range of expertise in social sciences, law and the humanities represented in the consortium of 25 research partners from 15 European countries, old and new member states, and three transnational civil society actors. We will conduct comparative analyses applying advanced quantitative methods to high quality register and survey data, and qualitative studies. The project will also develop a database of the legal content of family forms available in European countries, suitable for comparative analyses. Together with various stakeholders, government agencies, national and local policy-makers, non-governmental organizations and additional members of the scientific community across Europe, we will identify and disseminate innovation and best policy practices.