Questions about, and definitions of, close relations often raise heated debate, for they
concern fundamental ideas about personal and collective identities and experiences …

This chapter reviews how the concepts of boundaries and boundary work are deployed in
theorising intimacy, in order to assess how these concepts further our understanding of …

1.1 A good amount of sounding work is present in the sociological fields of family and
relationship studies. This work informs the understanding and management of perceived …

Being in some form of relationship with others is an integral part of human life. We all expect,
or wish for, to be part of an arrangement with another person or other people that provides …

This article examines the notion of 'family'to consider how it may be understood in people's
everyday lives. Certain recurrent and powerful motifs are apparent, notably themes of …

Family relations are undergoing dramatic changes globally and locally. At the same time,
certain features of family life endure. This popular book, now in a fully updated second …

Contemporary research has shown that families are constituted through everyday practices
of intimacy with affinities being fashioned around the structuring principles of openness and …

The family remains a complex and dynamic concept, variably defined and experienced.
Families take many different forms and these, together with changing expectations and …

Long distance relationships and caring at a distance may be connected with emotional and
psychological exhaustion but also gratification, reward and empowerment; above all, they …

Social and personal ties are undergoing significant changes in Western societies, provoking
public anxieties that traditional associations of family, neighbourhood and community are …