Families in Europe: A Private and Political Stake - Intimacy and Solidarity

Abstract

Under the influence of the process of individualization in western societies, privatization and plurality of families forms have become dominant. Family is, however, presented as a value rather than a structure as defined in Parsons’s terms. Family is listed by most Europeans as the place where they first seek shelter from the ills of social life, and most Europeans place fidelity as the most important factor to keep couples together. Although family has become a private matter, it remains a political stake for its two most important remaining functions: intimacy and solidarity. Although areas like adoption and the role of step-parents are still regulated by the state, due to the crisis of the welfare states and the ageing population in the western world, family solidarity is called on to partly replace state solidarity and intimacy. The article refers to data from a large-scale national Belgian survey to illustrate this.