Written by an international team of experts, this comprehensive volume investigates modern-day family relationships, partnering, and parenting set against a backdrop of rapid social, economic, cultural, and technological change.

• Covers a broad range of topics, including social inequality, parenting practices, children’s work, changing patterns of citizenship, multi-cultural families, and changes in welfare state protection for families


• Includes many European, North American and Asian examples written by a team of experts from across five continents


• Features coverage of previously neglected groups, including immigrant and transnational families as well as families of gays and lesbians


• Demonstrates how studying social change in families is fundamental for understanding the transformations in individual and social life across the globe


• Extensively reworked from the original Companion published over a decade ago: three-quarters of the material is completely new, and the remainder has been comprehensively updated