Call | Families and Life Course

Call for papers | Families and Life Course

Coordinators: Magda Nico [ CIES - Instituto Universitário de Lisboa ] Cláudia Casimiro [ CIEG/ISCSP – ULisboa ] Vanessa Cunha [ ICS-ULisboa ]

The thematic section on families and life course (ST-FCV) intends to establish new frontiers and bridges in the sociology of the family, especially with the perspective of the life course, both as a theoretical paradigm and as a diversified set of methodological tools. It aims to stimulate: a critical and innovative approach towards the continuities and the changes in family formation and dynamics; the articulation of diversified and interdisciplinary views on families; and the reflection and exchange of knowledge on central and connecting themes of these research areas..

This thematic section enlightens many phenomena in the private sphere, but also puts forward the theoretical or empirical confrontation with the public sphere. Thus, taking into account the theme of the Conference, the call of the ST-FCV for the presentation of communications suggests, albeit not exclusively, three avenues of research:

(1) the relation between the public and the private arena of family life, in particular through analyzes of the construction of (public) political identity within the family (intergenerational reproduction versus rupture); of time use; of the conciliation between the personal and the professional sphere; of the use of digital technologies and its appropriation, domestication, and influence in households and in the daily lives of families (for example, but not only, in intimate and intergenerational relationships, and transnational or migrant families).

(2) the analysis of family policies, their impact in the living conditions, decisions and perception of individual and family well-being; as well as the challenges they face in the context of demographic, social and economic change; the analysis of family-friendly and pro-natalist policies implemented in companies, parental leave and child support policies, policies for the elderly and other dependent adults, policies framing new realities and needs inherent to family life after divorce, etc.

[3] and the longitudinal or intergenerational methodological approaches to family life that escape the "fetish of the present" (Goodwin and O'Connor, 2015) in the analysis of the "Post-Truth Age": namely studies that compare different Ages using the same units of analysis, or that alternatively focus on the analysis of the same Age using different generational units in the perspective of the life course. Critical studies of the concepts of "generations" and "cohorts," and of the validity of certain historical contexts to determine, define, and delimit a multiplicity of generational units, are also welcome.

In addition to the aforementioned aspects, the call is open to communications that articulate the analysis of the life course with the study of family life and focus on the analysis of social change through the discussion of methodological strategies that assume the importance of temporality (e.g. life histories, family histories, follow-up studies, event history analysis, sequence analysis, etc.); and processes such as de-standardization, institutionalization, pluralization or differentiation of the life course.

The proponent team of ST-FCV, from APS, invites all interested parties to make an online submission of the abstract(s) of the communication(s) that they intend to present at the Conference.

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