Family studies

Parenting coordination is a client-pay, hybrid alternative dispute resolution (ADR) process designed for parents and guardians involved in on-going, high conflict child custody disputes. The basic idea underlying the parenting coordination process is that a parenting coordinator (PC) can act more quickly than court processes and with more authority than a mediator to resolve the seemingly continuous series of issues arising between high conflict parents.

Firmly  intertwining  the  personal  with  political  history ,  this  brilliant
novel’s strength  lies  in Keki Nusserwanji Daruwalla’s trademark wit
and  underscored  humour ,  effortlessly  flowing  prose,  and  a
trenchant  grasp  of  the  historic  events  that  are  accorded  an
unconventional  treatment.  It’s  not  a  mere  family  saga,  says
KALYANEE RAJAN

“Of Affaires d'amour and Princely intrigues”, in The Sunday Pioneer Newspaper, 19th June 2016. RNI No. 53466/91, Regd. No. DL ©- 05/1219/2015-2017. Vol. 26, Issue 169. Print.

The following article is an excerpt from a chapter of our forthcoming book: "The Shpoler Zeida – The Life, Legends, and Descendants of the Grandfather of Shpola."  The chapter is entitled: "Mysteries of the Shpoler Zeida Family."

Our genealogical research, spanning a decade, has been dedicated to constructing a family tree for a figure of immense significance in Chassidic history. This individual, born three centuries ago, is Yehuda Leib (c. 1725–1811), revered as the Saba Kadisha of Shpola or the Shpoler Zeida (the Grandfather of Shpola).

Our research journey was not without its complexities.  A significant challenge we encountered was the uncertainty surrounding families who claimed descent from the Shpoler Zeida yet were unsure of their precise line of descent.

During our research, we encountered a fascinating challenge. We identified fourteen families who claimed descent from the Shpoler Zeida, yet their precise line of descent remained a mystery. This lack of documentation has made their proud heritage a puzzle.  Since their lines of descent from the Shpoler Zeida were unknown, we refer to them as “mystery families.” 

This article focuses on the Beletsky family (including the Bell, Bruskin, Gellard, Goldberg, and Polis branches), who claim descent from the Shpoler Zeida. The mystery involves how their earliest known Beletsky ancestor, Leiba Beletsky (1782–1846), and his wife, Risya (1789–bef. 1848), are connected to the Shpoler Zeida. 

This research on the descent of the Beletsky family from the Shpoler Zeida provides many concepts and methods generalizable to Jewish genealogy and conveys important lessons on surmounting the many brick walls that make Jewish genealogical research so challenging.

For the last two decades, my sexual-emotional relationships have happened within what has come to be known as non-monogamy, a field in which I am an activist, theorist, consultant and who knows what else. And despite all that, and despite dedicating body, mind, emotional networks and a great deal of my energy to the matter, I still come up against repeated difficulties in trying to sustain relationships that are plural and healthy for everybody involved. And it’s not just me. The same thing happens to other people in the social circles I’m involved in: anguish, guilt, jealousy, lack of comprehension by those around us… all the psychological horrors get going.
It’s not me and it’s not us: it’s the system.

This paper explores the way in which feminism, whilst trying to achieve gender equality, has increased inequality between women.  It locates the cause of this in feminism's early adoption of Marxist and Engelsian thought and the way in which these two thinkers misconstrued the relationship between private and public domains.

This is a Chinese book that introduces and reflects on Chinese family culture and morality.

筆者原先是讀電腦工程的，其後去研讀神學、宗教和哲學時有機會接觸中國文化科目，內容都是講中國儒、釋、道思想、中國的文學、藝術、心理等，上課時除了討論家庭和心理外，其他內容都有一份莫名的陌生感；自小長輩常告訴我﹕「我們中國人深受儒家思想影響」，但我自小並沒有讀儒家經典，當我成年後研讀時便出現莫名的陌生感，為甚麼我對這些內容如此陌生？難道我身處文化並非中國文化？直至過去幾年在香港理工大學專業及持續教育學院教通識科目「中國家庭與文化」，才突然有種強烈親切感：「這就是自小到大影響著我的中國文化！」很多討論中國文化或中西文化比較書籍都會討論哲學宗教、文學藝術、政治經濟等，但事實上一般人對儒家典籍、詩詞歌賦都認識不多，所以如果從哲學文學去討論中國文化，讀者會感到很陌生，甚至懷疑自己是否真的受中國文化影響，又或中國文化是否依然有價值。筆者在教導「中國家庭文化」的過程中深深體會到：我們不一定熟悉中國歷史和傳統典籍，但中國文化就在我們的家庭中，一代一代潛移默化地傳承下來，深深影響著我們的處事、思想和價值觀；另外有部分中國文化亦因近年西方現代文化和工商業化影響而作出了調適和轉變。這些教學經驗亦令筆者重新認識和反思自我和所處的文化。
筆者在備課時發覺找有關中國家庭文化參考書籍並不容易，大多都只是歷史進路，如家庭史或婚姻史，大多資料陳述，較少對傳統價值進行反思；又或只是社會學進路，多討論中國家庭現代化轉變和適應，對傳統家庭觀念只簡單概括及批評，缺乏對傳統的歷史視野和欣賞；至於中國家庭對於個人的價值觀、社會文化、甚至政治經濟文化影響的探討就更少。筆者原本只是想出版一本資料性的書籍，但因筆者的哲學訓練和教學背景的影響，在教授這一科目時總喜歡進一步發問、思考傳統價值和現代社會文化的優點和不足，以獨立批評性角度思考傳統和現代化問題，故一邊教學一邊進一步研究中國家庭文化。由於課堂需要每位同學交一份「家庭個案分析」，透過閱讀超過一千位同學的功課和課堂上的討論，再加上筆者過去在教會和一些非牟利團體結識的朋友，以及與中外學者的交流等等，都讓筆者有機會認識到很多真實家庭故事和文化，有助筆者對中國家庭文化進一步反思和產生一些看法。本書不單只是從歷史和社會學角度，亦涉及人類學、心理輔導、宗教和哲學的分析，偶然亦會與西方文化作比較分析，以及討論包含中國大陸、香港、台灣家庭現代化的發展分別，可謂一跨科際的進路，同時也有筆者不少獨特的研究心得，希望本書對有關議題能有所貢獻。筆者亦很感激羅國洪先生和蔣瑋茵女士對本書提出寶貴意見，若本書有甚麼錯漏，責任仍在筆者。
一般寫傳統中國家庭的書籍亦會討論到古代婚姻家庭起源、煩瑣的婚禮、父母之命、媒妁之言、三妻四妾、三從四德、貞烈觀等，這些觀念都備受現代人批評，但筆者發覺很多有關批評都太片面，並非不對，只是未能多角度去思考；但由於篇幅所限，未能在此討論。筆者不敢自跨書中內容有甚麼過人之處，只期望透過本書可與不同學人對中國家庭文化一起進行反思和交流。

This paper outlines a theory explaining why the provider role is important to boys in the development of their masculine identity. The family is a primary site for identity formation, and boys appear to be more badly affected by growing up in non-intact families than girls. Female identity is more marked by biological transitions (e.g. pregnancy), and gives mothers a more central role within the family than fathers. Thus the male role within the family – the provider role-needs to be socially and culturally constructed. Where the father is absent and the role is devalued, transition from boyhood to manhood is made difficult, and masculinity may be problematized as 'hegemonic', 'toxic', and 'hyper'. Solutions from traditional cultures are discussed.

A BIBLICAL ANALYSIS OF THE ROLES OF THE FAMILY AND THE CHURCH REGARDING FAITH IMPARTATION


Dr. Jeffrey A Klick
Trinity College of the Bible and Theological Seminary
Chair: Dr. Max O. Sturdivant, Jr.

Keywords: Family, Marriage, Parental Responsibility, Age-Segregated, Age-Integrated


    Studies show that multitudes of young people raised in Christian homes are fleeing the Evangelical Church in record numbers as they leave High School. In this research, the Scripture is examined in detail specifically searching for examples and commands concerning the role of parents, children, and the Church regarding the impartation of faith to the next generation.     
    An evaluation of the individual roles of each family member is made, and the impact of a godly marriage is also considered. In addition, a brief foray is made into the problems associated with the non-traditional homes that plagues our nation through the rampant rise of divorce and single family homes.
    The specific commands in Scripture directed towards each family member are considered, and it is discovered that there are virtually no direct commands given to the organized religious community regarding faith impartation into the next generation. The Biblical commands that exist typically address each person on how to fulfill their role as a parent, spouse or child, but little specific instruction is given as to the organized Church's responsibility.
    The conclusions of this research show that the Scripture is a family-centric Book that has a great deal to say to and about the family, but very little regarding the organized religious community's role in the faith transference process. There is room within the realm of preference and necessity for a variety of church models; however, there is little in the Scripture directly pertaining to their usage.
      While many church models are experiencing a huge exodus of young people rejecting their parent’s faith as they leave High School, one group in particular  stands in startling contrast regarding the ratio of faith adoption. Studies show up to 92% of home school children retaining their parents faith as they enter college and beyond. The family-integrated church model is primarily populated with home educated young people, so it is examined in some detail.
    The underlying philosophical differences are compared between the two models, primarily focusing on the role of the pastor and the parents. In the traditional age-segregated model, the pastor or staff is often the initiator of ministry and families are encouraged to join the pastor or staff in outreach or service. In the family-integrated model, the pastor encourages the parents to be the initiators of outreach and ministry, as each family is ready or able to serve.

Dr Dariusz Piotr Klimczak analizuje wzorcowy model rodziny oparty na miłości wzajemnej. Wysuwa tezę, iż miłość wzajemna to duchowe
lekarstwo, które leczy z egoizmu, samotności, uzdrawia psychicznie pokaleczone dusze. Zwłaszcza osobie chorej daje gwarancję kochania i bycia kochanym. U podłoża większości chorób psychicznych, zwłaszcza schizofrenii, leży brak miłości, jak pisał nestor psychiatrii polskiej, Antoni Kępiński. Miłość wzajemna, „miłość bliźniego swego jak siebie
samego”, to ideał wyrażony w dobrostanogennym: „Kocham i jestem kochany”. Owe dwie perspektywy miłości wzajemnej, czyli także własnej, decydują o szczęściu człowieka.
Miłość bliźniego, a tym bardziej miłość nieprzyjaciół, to wypełnienie pustki, którą tworzą nienawiść i emocje negatywne. Aplikując w swoim życiu model miłości wzajemnej, człowiek wchodzi we wspólnotę, wyzbywając się tak raniącej egocentrycznej pustki, postawy
ksobnej, prowadzącej do samotności czy zaburzenia.
Autor przedstawia także przykład rodziny chorej, w której zaburzone zostały relacje dziecka z ojcem i matką oraz między małżonkami. Już jako dorośli, odkrywając dziecko w sobie, według postulatu Freuda, możemy odnaleźć pewne prawidłowości psychiczne, a nawet uzyskać wewnętrzny spokój. Wpływ „dziecka wewnętrznego” bądź rodzica na życie dorosłego jest szczególnie znaczący. Skuteczne funkcjonowanie dorosłego, dorosłego do założenia rodziny, odseparowanego od
negatywnych emocji, irracjonalnych wpływów i uprzedzeń, fobii i lęków z przeszłości, ma kluczowe znaczenie dla osiągnięcia dobrostanu i zdrowia psychicznego, zarówno poszczególnego członka, jak i całej rodziny.

هذا الكتاب
يرصد هذا الكتاب مدى ما وصل إليه الإفساد التشريعى الممنهج الذي تم في مصر، من خلال التعديلات التي تم إجراءها على القوانين المصرية المعنية بالأسرة والمرأة والطفل خلال الفترة من عام 1979 حتى عام 2009.
وقد استندت تلك التعديلات إلى الإتفاقيات الدولية المعنية بالمرأة والطفل، وأهمها "اتفاقية القضاء على كافة أشكال التمييز ضد المرأة (سيداو CEDAW)" والتي صدرت عن لجنة مركز المرأة بالأمم المتحدة عام 1979، واتفاقية حقوق الطفل (CRC) والتي صدرت لجنة حقوق الطفل بالأمم المتحدة عام 1989. ومن المعلوم أن تلك الاتفاقيات قد بنيت على المنظومة الغربية الحديثة، التي تقوم على التحرر من أية قيود قيمية أو دينية أو مجتمعية، وتحكمها مبادئ الفردية، والصراعية، ومن ثم يؤدي تطبيقها إلى تهدم الأسرة .. النواة الصلبة التي يرتكز عليه المجتمع، ومن ثم فناء المجتمع بشكل عام.
ونضع هذا الجهد المتواضع بين أيدي المعنيين، ليكون إضاءة لما قد يخفي عنهم من تشريعات مخالفة للشريعة الإسلامية، التي ينص البند الثاني في الدستور المصري على أنها المصدر الرئيسى للتشريع.
والله الموفق، وهو يهدي السبيل،،
                                              اللجنة الإسلامية العالمية للمرأة والطفل

Children’s television is an important and heavily researched subject area that has a long and outstanding tradition. However, while there are a lot of academic works on the content of children’s programming and the production aspect, the issue of children as a specific group of audience is addressed less frequently, and often in a very one-sided way of looking at the risks and benefits of children’s media practices.

This research is taking an audience approach to the study of children’s television, particularly focusing on children’s viewing practices and the use of multifunctional media devices in the home. The findings will come from a recent and original qualitative study of families, their everyday viewing practices and attitudes towards television and media technologies. The paper will argue that the study of children’s viewing habits have the potential to transform the way we think not only about children’s television, but also about television as a medium more generally, as there is evidence to suggest that family viewing practices are indeed undergoing a transformation. The paper will demonstrate that when it comes to children’s viewing, the discussion of television is no longer simply about the ‘telly’, but rather about ‘screens’, with children living in increasingly multimedia homes, using a variety of media devices for a variety of media practices that often compete, overlap and conflate. This paper aims to show that in the context of the home and children’s viewing, what we mean by television is changing, with the boundaries around the medium, its content and technology often blurring.

In this article, we argue that there must be a clear and consistent connection in research between the theory that we use, the methods that we employ, and the way in which we analyze our data. This is true no matter what aspects of children and families are being studied, although we study children and their families in different cultural contexts. The theoretical approach that we use is derived from Urie Bronfenbrenner’s recent writings. His theory is an ecological and systemic theory, forcing us to examine simultaneously aspects of the developing individual, aspects of the context (immediate, distal, and historical), the interactive processes that link the two and which foster development itself, and to follow that development over time. The research that the first author (Tudge) has been conducting with various colleagues over the past 10 years is the way in which we illustrate how this theory can be applied appropriately.

International research has evidenced the psychological impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on families, and the key role played by parenting stress levels. Although significant associations with parents' past trauma and resilience have been shown, this study aimed to explore their complex interplay on the relationship between parents' peritraumatic distress due to COVID-19, parenting stress, and children's psychopathological difficulties. We recruited 353 parents with children aged two to 16 years via an online survey during the Italian second wave of COVID-19. Parents' peritraumatic distress due to COVID-19, parenting stress, past trauma and resilience, and children's psychological difficulties were assessed through self-report and report-form questionnaires. Parents' past traumas significantly predicted peritraumatic distress due to COVID-19 and children's psychological difficulties. The relationship between past traumas and children's psychological dif...

THE RIGHTS OF GRANPARENTS AND GRANDCHILDREN TO KEEP A DIRECT AND REGULAR RELATIOSHIP: ORIGINS AND CRITICISM LEVELLED AT ARTICLE 229-2 OF THE CHILEAN CODE AND ITS JUDICIAL ENFORCEMENT. A CASE ABOUT AN EXCESSIVE ENFORCEMENT OF THE BEST INTEREST OF THE CHILD PRINCIPLE

Title: Where Is the Family in Global Mental Health?
Presenter:  Vincenzo Di Nicola, M.D., Ph.D.

Learning Objectives:
Audience participants will be able to:
(1) Articulate why a central role for families is needed for the effectiveness of clinical and research programs in Global Mental Health (GMH);
(2) Describe how health categories that focus solely on individuals can obscure awareness of relational, social, and cultural processes that contribute to health and illness.

Abstract:

From a family perspective, the Global Mental Health Movement appears as a regressive step to the usual Western health categories that focus on individuals as bearers of larger issues in the family, community, society and culture. These larger envelopes are addressed in the impersonal way of categories—e.g., child abuse, substance abuse, violence, and treatment gaps—rather than from the relational, social and cultural perspectives that define mental health and illness more fully, meaningfully, and realistically. These aspects of GMH may deepen the practitioners’ perception of public health and epidemiology and their international organizations as being removed from clinical concerns and from their meaningful relational contexts. Without such notions as attachment and belonging, ignoring the most significant of human relationships based on the family and community, GMH risks creating another disembodied field divorced from our lived experience as communal and relational beings.


References

Di Nicola, Vincenzo. A Stranger in the Family: Culture, Families, and Therapy. New York & London: W.W. Norton, 1997.

Di Nicola, Vincenzo. Letters to a Young Therapist: Relational Practices for the Coming Community. New York & Dresden: Atropos Press, 2011.

Di Nicola, Vincenzo. Family, psychosocial, and cultural determinants of health. In: Sorel, Eliot, ed., 21st Century Global Mental Health. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning, 2012, pp. 119-150.


Bio Sketch

Vincenzo Di Nicola, MPhil, MD, PhD, is a Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist who uses family, social and cultural perspectives to investigate children and families in disadvantaged contexts, both at home and abroad. He works with migrant children and families and the impacts of trauma. Di Nicola is the author of “A Stranger in the Family: Culture, Families, and Therapy” (1997), “Letters to a Young Therapist” (2011), and a forthcoming selection of his writing, “On the Threshold: Children, Families, and Culture Change,” edited and introduced by Armando Favazza, MD, MPH. Di Nicola is Chair of the APA Global Mental Health Caucus and Full Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Montreal.

Everybody is born into a family. Each has its own history, therefore, 'our history' is not made by us, but by previous generations. The rise of International migration and the crumbling of family structures, however, only make it harder for descendants to learn about their family history. Inhibited by language and geographical barriers as well as lost connections to the bearers of knowledge, many offspring of migrant families year for answers to questions such as 'Where do I come from?' or 'How did I get here?' Answering these requires re-establishing lost connections and meeting family one previously did not know. This paper illustrates how the juxtaposition of two generations of Chinese Australian migrants' narrative (a 'pioneer migrant' and an 'overseas born Chinese' are vital to piecing together a segment of family history.

This article analyzes letters written by ordinary people to President
Getúlio Vargas with the aim to receive the family allowance. Motivated by
government’s family policy defined by the Constitution of 1937 and Decree no.
3200 of 1941, fathers and mothers sent letters and photographs to tell their stories
of poverty, but also to prove they conformed to the government’s demographic
and social policy.

In philosophy, there are two competitor views about the nature and value of childhood: The first is the traditional, deficiency, view, according to which children are mere unfinished adults. The second is a view that has recently become increasingly popular amongst philosophers, and according to which children, perhaps in virtue of their biological features, have special and valuable capacities, and, more generally, privileged access to some sources of value. This article provides a conceptual map of these views and their possible interpretations, and notes their bearing on issues of population ethics and on the duties that we are owed during childhood.

Family quality of life (FQoL) is an emerging concept to understand and improve the well-being and quality of life (QoL) of families. While there has been a lot of effort to conceptualize life domains of families and measurement tools are devised, few studies concentrate on an in-depth understanding of FQoL. The specific aim of the current study is to understand the relation between individual QoL and FQoL, by studying families with a child/children with intellectual and developmental disabilities (ID/DD) in the Nether-lands. This can contribute to a stable foundation of the concept of FQoL. Methods: An explorative case study design was used, in which the parents, sibling, and child with ID voiced their thoughts on their FQoL. The presented case has been analysed through thematic and narrative analysis. A father and a mother with a child with an intellectual disability have joined the research team as co-researchers. The relational dynamics found within the family illuminated an inte...

The popular Samoan adage 'o le ala i le pule o le tautua' (the pathway to leadership is through service) is commonly understood by Samoans around the world as an important life value. Writings about tautua (service) have chronicled traditional understandings of the term (Tavale 2009, Tavale 2013) and more recently with personal experiences of tautua in Samoa (Filisi, 2018) and transnational matai in their communities (Falaniko 2020, Fetui 2020). Being able to trace the links between these understandings of tautua leads to considering ways in which tautua is enacted and enabled in Samoa and transnational societies. Tavale's four stages of tautua (Tavale, 2013) and his collection of proverbial expressions that focus on tautua (Tavale, 2009) form a natural foundation for its application in Samoa and internationally. Through the eyes of matai with Samoan language fluency, we use our multiple service roles with the intent of privileging interdisciplinary Pasifika research. We introduce the three intergenerational spheres of service-tautua ia tautua (serve to serve), tautua ia pule (serve to lead) and pule ia tautua (lead to serve)-that show what tautua looks like in a lifecycle. Samoan indigenous knowledge pertaining to service foregrounds the shared experiences of tautua by the authors. The oscillation of the spheres speaks directly to service, positioning our own individual experiences as matai, as Pasifika tertiary students (Pilisi, 2020) and how we negotiate our journey of tautua within our collective contexts through the conceptualisation of the "tautua lifecycle" model-to explore the pathway to leadership through service.

Where connections between demography and politics are examined in the literature, it is largely in the context of the effects of male aspects of demography on phenomena such as political violence. This project aims to place the study of demographic variables’ influence on politics, particularly on democracy, squarely within the scope of political and social sciences—and—to focus on the effects of woman-related demographics, namely fertility rates. I test the hypothesis that demographic variables—female-related predictors in particular—have an independent effect on political structure. Comparing different countries over time, when fertility rates decline, we observe a growth in democracy. In the theoretical framework developed, it is family structure, and the economic and political status of women that account for this change at the macro and micro levels. Findings based on data for over 140 countries over 3 decades are robust when controlling not only for alternative effects, but also for reverse causality and data limitations.

Podróże rodzinne istnieją praktycznie od początku nowoczesnej turystyki, a ich podstawowe cele, mimo ewolucji, przez dziesięciolecia nie ulegały zasadniczym przewartościowaniom. Sytuacja zmieniła się wraz z rozwojem społeczeństwa postmodernistycznego (ponowoczesnego). Zarówno na rodzinie, jak i turystyce – w sposób chaotyczny, przypadkowy, często przeciwstawny – swoje niezatarte piętno odcisnęły współczesne trendy i zjawiska: globalizacja, konsumpcjonizm, indywidualizm, relatywizm moralny, dominacja popkultury, nowe ruchu społeczne, problemy tożsamościowe, informatyzacja i wiele innych. Do najważniejszych czynników kształtujących aktualnie turystykę rodzinną w Polsce zaliczono: • ilościowe i jakościowe zmiany modelu polskiej rodziny (dominacja rodzin małych: 2 + 1 lub 1 + 1, wzrost znaczenia alternatywnych form rodziny, zmiana charakteru relacji pomiędzy członkami rodziny – zamiana ról: nauczyciel-uczeń), • ogólne trendy i przeobrażenia turystyki w świecie ponowoczesnym (konsumpcyjny styl życia, który traktuje podróżowanie jedynie jako źródło przyjemności i zabawy, wzrost znaczenia dzieci w planowaniu, przygotowywaniu i realizacji wyjazdów), • zainteresowanie komercyjnych podmiotów rodziną jako atrakcyjnym segmentem rynku turystycznego, który jednak wymaga indywidualnego podejścia i specjalnie profilowanej oferty (specjalne pakiety wakacyjne, animacje i kluby dla dzieci, hotele przyjazne rodzinie, parki tematyczne, odrębne portale internetowe, przewodniki turystyczne itp.).

The family is the smallest unit of society consisting of the head of the family and several people who are gathered and live in one place under a roof in a state of interdependence. The role of the family describes a set of interpersonal behaviors, traits, activities related to the person in certain positions and situations. In the personal role in the family based on the expectations and behavior patterns of the family, groups and society. Work from homeis a term for working remotely, more precisely working from home. So workers do not need to come to the office face to face with other workers. Work from home is already familiar to freelancers, but they often call it remote work or remote working. Work from home and remote working actually make no difference, only the terms, the only difference is the rules of the company they work for. There are those who apply normal working hours 8 am to 4 pm or free working hours as long as the work is done and communication is always fast response This study aims to determine the role of the family in the ongoing program, namely work form home, which is caused by: prohibition of face-to-face activities that present many participants to be postponed or cancelled. Previously, a number of private companies in Jakarta had also issued a work from home policy becausethe Covid-19 pandemic andrestrictions on community activities to reduce the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic (PPKM). This research is a qualitative research where to find out the role of the family towards employees who are working from home

The purpose of this book is to propose a new way of looking at the family and family policy in the context of a society that is in the process of globalization. It aims above all at challenging the prevailing way in which family public policy is understood and practiced worldwide today, that is what Donati calls the lib-lab configuration. Empirical research has shown that family policies today are involved in a number of vicious cycles that generate more problems than they solve and in some cases lead to total policy failure. The book presents alternatives to the ways in which the family is considered and treated today. It seeks to review the relations between families and public policies from the viewpoint of relational sociology. This viewpoint is 'differential’, that is it highlights what makes a difference in building family relations in one way or another. The originality of this volume rests in its analysis of the present situation, its challenge to current public policies and the proposals of new directions towards a relational configuration that Donati calls societal, plural and subsidiary family policies. Approaching the topic from the family’s point of view, the book operates through employing relational distinctions, highlighting the differences, that are hidden in the field observed, often unexpressed in the face of a colonizing assumption that the family is a mere product of society.

As interseções complexas entre comida e direito devem ser considera-das uma questão a analisar, pois a comida é um guarda-chuva interdisciplinar que fornece um excelente aparato epistemológico e metodológico para examinar as relações sociais contemporâneas, iluminando as contradições, as possibilidades e os limites do direito. E é neste contexto que pretendo introduzir o tema do papel da comida no direito da família, em geral, e na sua relação com as responsabilidades parentais, em particular – o que farei através da análise de algumas recentes sentenças emanadas por tribunais italianos que tiveram de decidir conflitos envolvendo questões dietárias, deveres dos progenitores e superior interesse da criança.

"Cet article présente une analyse comparative de la participation des membres de deux familles salvadoriennes, dont l’une compte des enfants adultes installés en Australie et l’autre en Belgique, au soin de leurs parents âgés. Nous verrons qu’en dépit de la distance, ces migrants fournissent à leurs parents un soutien financier, émotionnel et pratique en mobilisant les membres de leur réseau familial transnational. Partant d’une définition des familles transnationales comme étant des « familles qui vivent tout ou la plupart du temps séparées, mais qui tiennent ensemble et créent ce qui pourrait être considéré comme un sentiment de bien-être collectif et d’unité, autrement dit un ‘sens de la famille’, même au travers des frontières nationales » [Bryceson & Vuorela, 2002b, p. 18], nous verrons que c’est notamment en s’engageant dans les soins transnationaux [Baldassar et al, 2007] que les migrants salvadoriens et leurs proches créent et maintiennent vivante leur inscription dans le groupe familial.

This paper presents a comparative analysis of the participation of Australia and Belgium-based members of two Salvadorian families to the care of their ageing parents. In spite of the distance, these migrants provide financial, emotional and practical support to their parents via the mobilisation of transnational family networks. Based on a definition of transnational families as “families that live some or most of the time separated from each other, yet hold together and create something that can be seen as a feeling of collective welfare and unity, namely ‘familyhood’, even across national borders’ [Bryceson & Vuorela, 2002b, p. 18], I will argue that Salvadoran migrants and their kin create and maintain a sense of family through the provision of transnational care [Baldassar et al, 2007]"