Call | Families and Life Course

Call for papers | Families and Life Course

Coordinators:

Vanessa Cunha (ICS-ULisboa)

Magda Nico (CIES, ISCTE-IUL)

Cláudia Casimiro (CIEG, ISCSP-ULisboa)

The establishment of new frontiers and bridges between The Sociology of the Family and the Life Course perspective, both as a theoretical paradigm and as a diversified palette of methodological instruments, has been one of the major goals of ST-FCV.

With the growth and diversification of this field, the ST-FCV intends to stimulate:

1. Critical and innovative approaches towards continuities and ruptures in the formation and family processes;
2. The articulation of diversified and interdisciplinary perspectives on families, their members and the relationships between them;
3. The study of the interdependence between family dynamics and individual trajectories;
4. The reflection and knowledge sharing about central and contiguous problematics to these research areas;
5. The consolidation and innovation of methodological designs, processes and techniques about the individual’s life course and families.

With these objectives in mind, as well as the theme of this Congress, the ST-FCV calls for the presentations of communications on four major avenues of investigation (which are not mutually exclusive):

1. Inequalities in Families, or

the historical, cultural and social location of families

We strongly encourage participants to share research results on the role of the family as a producer and reproducer of social inequalities with short, medium and long term repercussions on the life of its members; on how these processes of production and reproduction of inequalities have been changing and developing between and within generations, namely with an impact on childhood, the transition to adulthood, or old age. This will allow the discussion and consolidation of the theoretical argument of inequalities as a process over time and not just across territories.

1. Belongings, Identities and Agency, or

the strategic adaptation of individuals

The relationship between the public and the private spheres of the family is also another topic particularly welcome at this Congress. This relationship can be studied through: the analysis of the construction of political (public) identity within the family (reproduction versus intergenerational rupture); the uses of time; the conciliation between the personal and the professional spheres; the use of digital technology and its appropriation, domestication and influence on family life, relationships, autonomy, intimacy, norms or, for instance, in transnational families.

1. Interdependencies in the Family, or

the ways trajectories are interconnected

Contribute to the study of the family as an observatory of the interdependence of social life. Here we encourage the study of the consequences of life events such as conjugality or marriage, fertility and infertility, birth, illness, death and mourning, motherhood, paternity, and parenting, co-residence, divorce, child and elderly care, as well as many other impacts and effects on the lives of family members, in both private and public spheres.

1. Methodological Imagination of the Life Course, or

how to study the temporalities of lives

We call for the presentation of communications that link life course analysis with the study of family life and focus on the analysis of social change through the discussion of methodological strategies that assume the importance of temporality (e.g. life histories, family histories, follow-up studies, event history analysis, sequence analysis, etc.) and processes such as de-standardization, institutionalization, pluralization or differentiation of the life course.

These will be excellent opportunities to bring the Portuguese reality (and eventually others) and the theoretical principles of the life course into dialogue, thus materializing the Portuguese contribution to the field of Families and Life Course.

We are very pleased to invite colleagues who, from both the academic and the professional world - associations, organizations, foundations, central, regional or local government - work directly with or about families, their problems, and temporalities. The sharing of these academic and professional experiences is very welcome to the Congress. Abstracts should be submitted online at the following platform: https://xi-congresso-aps.eventqualia.net/pt/2020/inicio/

There different modalities of participation at the Congress: oral communications, posters, visual documents (e.g. short films more focused on projects, interventions, etc.).

The criteria that will be privileged in the evaluation of the abstracts are:

- For the academic context (basic / pure or applied research)

• Goals
• Theoretical framework
• Methodology
• Results (theoretical / theoretical-practical)
• Conclusions

- Outside the academic context (applied research, action research)

• Goals
• Diagnosis of intervention context
• Methodology (even if synthetic)
• Results (theoretical-practical / practical)
• Conclusions / Evaluation (project evaluation, trend analysis, etc.)

Whenever justified, as in the last Congress, the ST-FCV Coordinators will write a brief qualitative review regarding the submitted abstracts, with suggestions for the eventual development of the communication.

The rules and deadlines to be considered for the submission of abstracts, as well as more information about the XI Portuguese Congress of Sociology, can be found on the Congress platform.