ABSTRACT
Most of us experience family living in a variety of ways for most or all of our lives. In view of this, it would be reasonable to expect the social sciences to take theoretical issues around family lives as the major preoccupation. In fact, family living is absent from many of the social sciences; even in sociology, the study of family living is far from a central concern. How can it be that something so central to all our lives, so powerful in driving our hopes and ambitions, is banished to the sidelines?
