ABSTRACT
During the last twenty years in Italy, the family has played a multifaceted and somewhat ambiguous role. On the one hand, when compared to other European countries, families seem to have retained a peculiarly strong social role. Families still represent the main provider of individual welfare, on the basis of strong links of support and dependency between generations (see also some discussion on welfare, job flexibility and social protections in Simoni’s chapter). At the same time, Italy’s dramatic fall in birth rates, and the phenomenon of the ‘long thin family’ show that transformations have taken place in Italians’ family life and the expectations associated with it.
