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The evolving family: an international perspective

There is both good news and bad about one of our most durable and most resilient social institutions the family. The bad news is that the family appears to be in a state of crisis all over the world. The good news is that there is unquestionably universal recognition that the family, as the basic unit of society, will survive despite its apparently weakened state in every geographical region. Throughout the world the family is characterized by enormous complexity and variety in its forms, functions, roles and responsibilities, but the basic needs of families are all common human needs and, thus, universal. To understand those needs, this article will look, albeit in a most superficial manner, at a host of factors, policies and programmes that influence, both positively and negatively, the situation of families today. Fortunately, excellent documentation is available because the United Nations, along with a number of international non-governmental organizations, has recently rediscovered the family and the relation of family well-being to the general well-being of societies everywhere. Within the past five years there has been a veritable explosion of international research, reporting and conference activity from Vienna to New York, from Moscow to New Delhi, from Tokyo to Porto Alegre, Brazil, which has served as the source of the information here presented about the evolving family.’ I