Introduction

In 1976 a group of Nordic family researchers and the Nordic Social Science Research Councils argued for the need and relevance of a comparative research project to assess the important changes going on in the family in rapidly modernising European countries. The broad background for the study of the family was the macro-changes in production and working life, when agricultural and handicraft production changed into industrial production and the production of services. In the Nordic countries the strong and powerful wave of women’s research emerging after the mid-1970s brought into focus the importance of women’s entrance into the labour market for both the family and society. The belief that the state and its institutions could and should provide the bulk of caring, reproductive and socialisation work in society was challenged. The investigation centres on the family’s role in the strains and contradictions between production and reproduction. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.