Legami familiari e legami sociali: dalla contrapposizione al dialogo

[Autom. eng. transl.] One of the most important features of the current socio-cultural context is the deep dichotomization between family and society. The family is considered a private matter, an exclusive place of care and affection, clearly distinct from the social context. In fact, the most widespread family representation is that of the "nest", of the safe place of affectivity; while society is seen mainly as a place of danger, of risk, of an uncontrollable and unstable reality. This progressive separation between the family and the social context is very risky and can be found in a good number of clearly visible relational "phenomena". The couple's relationship today represents above all the place of "emotional" love: that is, the drive towards self-realization that characterizes the current socio-cultural context is reflected in the expectations that people have regarding the couple's relationship, which seems to be founded above all on passion and intimacy, on the search for "strong emotions", rather than on clear and lasting commitment. Another particular aspect that characterizes today's families is the new meaning of the parenting experience and the position of the child in the family. On the one hand, there is a decrease in births and the spread of families with an only child, and on the other hand, where biology sets limits, to a fierce search for the child; this is because a child's desire is increasingly understood as an adult's right. The family can be defined as a real "mediator" between the individual and society, among its tasks there is precisely the management of the spaces dedicated to oneself and to the community, ie the management of the mutual relationship. The family is a social subject that lives not only in the dialogue between its members but also in the relationship with the community in which it is inserted. Indeed, the family by its nature is closely connected to the social, this because it possesses in itself a social dimension which is constitutive of its own identity. The transmission between the family generations, through which the material and moral patrimony of the family is treated between the previous and subsequent generations, is one of the processes that highlight the connection between the family and its social context. Even more when it has values as its object. To put the social nature of the family at the center of reflection means to consider the family and the community in relation to each other, in a two-way relationship of mutual influence. The family lives in a social context formed by precise values, a network of relationships, the presence of institutions and services that affect its well-being. Promoting family generativity is at the same time allowing the social to overcome the risk of stagnation and to contain the degenerative processes that threaten its development, offering the new generations and the whole society a breath of hope for the future.