Changing family life in Europe: Significance for state and society

Abstract

ABSTRACT Family change and the risks associated with it form the departure point of this article. The intent is both to elaborate the nature of family change in European societies and to interrogate contemporary policy on the family in the light of emerging changes and risks. The first part of the article undertakes an overview analysis of the main changes affecting families, looking at structure, organisation and relations. It then moves on to consider the key risks and challenges posed by recent changes for individuals, states and society. The risks discussed include the seeming lack of readiness to commit to parenthood, a polarisation between parenthood and partnership, overburdening of women and risks around care. The final section of the article turns to the state's response, in terms of what it has been and what it might (need to) be. It shows how policy on the family, while a growing area of intervention, has actually narrowed in scope, becoming more an arm of employment policy and operating to a rather unidimensional model of family, viz. the two-income family. The underlying story is of a continuing divergence between states’ responses and what people wish for their family life. When it comes to the family, states it seems are always out of date.

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