The Family in Transition (2003-2005) is a research project funded by the Finnish Academy of Science. It was inspired by the media discussions that took place at the dawn of the new millenium which brought a new perspective to the concept of family. The resulting concern about the weakening of family cohesion came from many levels and grew to an extraordinary scale, affecting the family of today on at least a rhetorical level. Key questions in this discussion arise from the sociological discussion surrounding the concepts of individuality and communality. Several kinds of material are used in the research, ranging from interviews to media archives and fictious texts. Research topics of the project

• 1. A rhetorical turning-point: examination of the turning point that appeared in the public discussion as a rhetorical turning-point and how it eventually projected itself into practice
• 2. Family and relatives: analysis of the techniques of building family unity, based on extensive themed interviews
• 3. Social adeptness: How the world outside the family affects the solidarity of the family
• 4. Theorizing about the family

Click here for a more detailed explanation of the project’s background and research areas. Research projects associated with "Family in Transition" project

• Professor of Family Sociology Riitta Jallinoja acts as the leader of the project. Her own research is concentrated on the significance of rhetorical turning-points (1960-2003) and the state of the family today.
• Anna-Maija Castrén, Ph.D. studies family and kin ties from a comparative European perspective concentrating on egocentered social networks and focusing on the lifehistorical process through which the circle of intimate relationships or family communality is formed.
• Juhani Suonpää, M.Soc.Sc. studies the social role of television, VCR, computer and Internet in the family.
• Heini Martiskainen de Koenigswarter, Ph.D, examines discourse on maternal experiences in two cultural and policy contexts: Finland and France. Her dissertation, Discursive Matrixes of Motherhood. Cultivating Decency and Emotions in Finnish and French Mother-talk, was published in 2006.
• Jaana Maksimainen, M.Soc.Sc, examines the intimate couple relationship as it exists in an individualized society.
• Anna Kokko, M.Soc.Sc, examines family and health edification delivered to families waiting for a baby in Finland: the specific guidebook and its history are analyzed as texts, as an intervention and as action.
• Kaisa Ketokivi, M.Soc.Sc, studies through analyzing family and friendship relationships at the time of family formation how the social is re-organized in the individualized society.

Of interest

Beginning September 15, 2003, Professor Riitta Jallinoja will hold a lecture seminar in Family Sociology that will be worth four study credits on the academic level. The lectures (Mondays from 2-4 p.m. in the lecture hall, U35) are open to everyone interested and are worth two study credits. The seminar work is also worth two credits and takes place in the seminar room of the Sociology department (U35) on Tuesdays from 10 a.m.-12 p.m.

Click here to see the publications associated with The Family in Transition project