Virtual Relations and Globalized Families: The Genogram 4.0 Interview

Abstract

This chapter brings together two global developments: the increasing number of transnational families and the expansion of information and communication technologies. It is assumed that we as family/systemic therapists and trainers have to react to these changes by providing new concepts as well as new methods. "World families" make visible how globalization becomes embodied in marital and family relations; this model criticizes explicitly the "methodological nationalism" (Beck and Beck Gernsheim 2010) usually applied in family studies. We propose the Genogram 4.0 Interview for therapy, training and research. This tool scrutinizes unquestioned certainties like the concept of "home" and focuses on the use of digital technology in everyday communication processes. It shall help us to understand how one-national or transnational families are "doing family" (Morgan 1996) in the world today. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved)