Families undergoing transitions: Changes in family concepts and related processes of learning

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Uwe Uhlendorff
• Subject Area: Education Systems and Educational Institutions
• Term: from 2012 to 2016
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 228481009

Against the background of a significant diversification of family forms, life-styles and living arrangements, the organisation and management of a fulfilling family life has become more and more demanding nowadays. Despite the prevalence of the theoretical concept of 'doing family', current research on the 'management of everyday family life' falls short with regard to the question, how ideals and ideas of a fulfilling family life (family concepts) are adopted to changes in private life which take place at certain stages of the family life course. The proposed study aims at providing an better understanding of changes in family concepts, which take place during important transitions in family life (transition to parenthood and transitions to post couple parenthood). Following the assumption, that transitions are phases of the life course, where particularly 'dense' processes of learning and Bildung take place, the overall aim of the study is to work out processes of parental learning and' 'Bildung' that underlie the observed changes in family concepts.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Participating Persons: Professor Dr. Hans Rüdiger Müller; Professor Dr. Kim-Patrick Sabla-Dimitrov