The Sociology of the Family in Italy: Its Contribution to Public Debate and Social Policies

The article explores the sociology of the family in Italy, examining its contribution to the public debate and its role in understanding the major transformations of the family. The focus is on a few key issues, including secularization and the crisis of religious marriage, the reduction in the number of children, separations and divorces, changing couple lifestyles and gender roles, socialization within multigenerational families, new biographical paths, reconciling family and work, migrant families, the aging population process, and family care tasks. The sociology of the family has seen significant transformation since the 1970s, often with contrasting sociological paradigms. While from different perspectives, the empirical research conducted by sociologists of the family has made it possible to understand families’ specific resources in Italy, as well as their needs, on both a material and a relational level. Particular attention has been paid to the tasks of socio-education of new generations and the care of fragile and elderly members. Italian sociologists have contributed to make evident the post-modern dialectic between the rights of individuals, women and men, and the rights of families that can promote a sense of belonging, solidarity, and common good. In this sense, sociologists have played an important role in giving concrete shape to interventions to monitor families’ transformations and needs (such as the National Family Observatory and the ISTAT multi-purpose surveys) and to support families (the National Plan for Families and, recently, the Family Act). Finally, the article sheds light on open issues on which the work of family sociologists is mostly focused today, with special attention to the future of the family and its role in the development of society.