From Family to Family Policies. Vicissitudes of a Tour

Abstract

In this article the author tries to identify some crucial elements that have influenced his intellectual life and have therefore contribued to the genesis of his thoretical orientations and research pratices. He discusses different kinds of research in which he was involved whose central concern was a better knowledge of family structure, of the organization of the private sphere and of their evolution in modern societies. In recent years he has introduced into his discourse the notions of gender, patriarchy and individualization and stresses the role of the welfare state and the importance of family policy in so far as they tend to shape the matrix of constraints and opportunities from which family values arise.