Residential strategies in the process of family recomposition

Abstract

This article examines the residential choices and practices adopted by stepfamilies as a strategy to manage the network of social relations characteristic of these family structures, such as relationships between stepbrothers, between stepchildren and stepfathers/step-mothers and others, by establishing new ways in which pairing, reconstituted families and co-residence does not have to coincide or appear in the sequential order that has characterized the formation of a conventional family until now. The empirical data supporting the article were drawn from a qualitative research study conducted in the Community of Madrid with 51 interviews of a sample of 17 stepfamilies. The results reveal the social and symbolic value of space as a regulatory agent of potential conflicts.