In this paper, we present a figurational approach to studying family relationships drawing from Norbert Elias's notion of figuration that combines insider and outsider perspectives to complex relational dynamics. In recent discussions on intimacy and personal lives, the family has been viewed as a subset of any personal relationships despite the structural dynamics of, for example, gender and generation that are at play within families. On the other hand, it has been claimed that a family has a special dynamic of its own that requires a ‘language of family’. In this paper, we present a figurational approach for studying family relationships both as personally lived and as embedded in wider webs of relationships. The proposed approach combines qualitative insight drawn from interviews and a systematic mapping of significant webs of relationships that both constrain and enable people. Combining these two aspects highlights the complex family dynamics and lived ambivalences between personal affinities and relational expectations. The paper draws from empirical studies in which significant life events, including marriage and biographical disruptions, such as loss, divorce and illness, reconfigure people's lives and selves, highlighting the contemporary complexity of families and personal relationships. The article develops relational methodology, addressing the ‘middle ground’ of relations to bring together the personal and the more structural aspects of family dynamics that phases of biographical change make visible.
In later life, changing conditions related to health, partnership, and economic status may trigger not only support but also conflict and ambivalence, with the consequent renegotiation of family ties. The aim of this study is to investigate both conflict and emotional support in the family networks of older adults, taking the research beyond the level of intergenerational dyads. We used a subsample of 563 elders (aged 65 years and older) from the Swiss Vivre/Leben/Vivere survey. Multiple correspondence analysis and in‐depth case studies were used to identify the key social conditions that relate to the prevalence of conflicted and supportive dyads in family networks. Findings showed that the balance of conflict and emotional support in older adults' family networks varied according to the composition of their family network as well as their age, health, income, and gender.
This study examines descriptions of families after separation and re-partnering, with a focus on family boundaries between those considered family and those excluded from it. Adults in stepfamilies may try to maintain a large number of family ties originating from various partnerships, or they may limit the recognition of their family to the members of their new household. Children, on the other hand, are encouraged to maintain contact with both parents and their relatives. Family descriptions of 48 re-partnered mothers residing in Switzerland, as well as their current partners and children, are analysed by focusing on exclusiveness and inclusiveness in written or drawn descriptions. Descriptions collected in family interviews follow a balance of social tensions among interdependent individuals by which responses of children usually match those of their mothers. Mothers' responses show a high level of exclusiveness, whereas responses of mothers' partners and children are more balanced between exclusivity and inclusivity. Inclusiveness in families after re-partnering is also connected to conditions such as family structure, mothers' education and employment.
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