ABSTRACT
This book is focused on the twin notions of families and events. While highly normalised in most societies, both are contested concepts. The intersection of events and family studies is an area requiring much further attention. This ‘need’, however, is not simply because there is a gap in the market, but rather because many of the contexts in which family is understood and performed are events. My intention, therefore, is not to produce an add-family-and-stir model of event studies. Rather, it is my contention that how families come to be and, moreover, come to be defined as ‘families’ revolve around events. This introduction provides the theoretical backdrop to contributions in the collection, focusing specifically on the notions of family, family practices, family display and family intimacies.
