Widmer, E.D., Jallinoja, R., eds. (2008). Beyond the Nuclear Family. Families in a Configurational Perspective. Peter Lang, Bern.
The importance of significant family contexts that are not easily circumscribed with reference to a household or a limited set of family roles has been underlined throughout the last two decades by family researchers, and a strong interest for family relationships beyond the nuclear family has emerged in the social sciences. The various contributions to this book develop a configurational approach of families, which emphasizes interdependencies existing among large numbers of family members. They reconsider some of the central issues of family life in this light: fertility projects, childcare and socialization, monetary transfers across generations and support for the elderly, relationships with grandparents, uncles, aunts and in-laws, gender inequalities, divorce and other family disruptions, and the importance of friends and acquaintances for families. Beyond very real changes affecting the structures of family life since the sixties, the book as a whole reveals that basic forms of togetherness still organize much of what is going on in family configurations.
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