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The Family of Individuals: An Overview of the Sociology of the Family in Europe, 130 Years After Durkheim’s First University Course

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The Palgrave Handbook of Family Sociology in Europe

Abstract

In the first course on the sociology of the family in Europe in 1888, Emile Durkheim asserted that the modern family is characterised by a particular “attachment to persons” that leads to a shift in the balance between the family We and the Is analysed by sociology. This inversion of We and I can be seen in demand for strong personal recognition (love and affection). But this transformation has two limitations: the persistence of gender relations leading to inequalities between women and men in the couple and family, and the persistence of a family We, notably through the inheritance of cultural capital. The sociology of the family has thus come to be associated with the sociology of gender and the sociology of intergenerational social reproduction.

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Acknowledgements

Thanks to Juliette Rogers for the translation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Paris, Centre de Recherches Sur Les Liens Sociaux (CNRS), Université de Paris, Paris, France

    François de Singly

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Social Sciences, University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland

    Anna-Maija Castrén

  2. Faculty of Human and Social Studies, Mykolas Romeris University, Vilnius, Lithuania

    Vida Česnuitytė

  3. Department of Education, Cultural Heritage and Tourism, University of Macerata, Macerata, Italy

    Isabella Crespi

  4. University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Jacques-Antoine Gauthier

  5. Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal

    Rita Gouveia

  6. EHESP, CNRS (National Centre of Scientific Research), Rennes, France

    Claude Martin

  7. Campus María Zambrano, University of Valladolid, Segovia, Spain

    Almudena Moreno Mínguez

  8. Institute of Sociology, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Toruń, Poland

    Katarzyna Suwada

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de Singly, F. (2021). The Family of Individuals: An Overview of the Sociology of the Family in Europe, 130 Years After Durkheim’s First University Course. In: Castrén, AM., et al. The Palgrave Handbook of Family Sociology in Europe. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-73306-3_2

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