ABSTRACT
This chapter considers economic development from the family point of view, in its effort to achieve income, security, stability and well-being. It analyses the structural profile of the Italian family and the important ways in which it is being affected by the choices of individuals with regard to procreation and childbirth. The chapter focuses on the large-scale transformation processes that have affected Italian society–urbanisation, immigration, industrialisation–together with the methods used by families to adjust to these processes. It presents a detailed analysis of the natural tendency of the Italian family not only to act as an autonomous and self-sufficient unit but also, and more especially, to develop a vocation for extending the boundaries of the family group. The consequent inversion of roles with the outside world becomes, in its more advanced and more "virtuous" form, a means of developing social and relational capital.
