Current trends in German family sociology - Theories, data, and methods

Abstract

How and in which areas did our knowledge of family structures, family dynamics and the determinants of family change improve in the past decade? Which substantive areas receive most attention and which questions are underresearched? Which methods are commonly applied in empirical family research and what can we say about data availability? This article reviews the current discussion and recent research on these questions in German family sociology in the context of the international literature. Next to a review of the substantive research foci in the past decade and an overview of available data and methods, we focus on identifying current substantive research gaps and methodological deficits. We formulate three requests for current family research in the social sciences: A timely family sociology that is relevant for social policy has to 1) pay more attention to subjective, cultural and social influences on family change beyond its structural determinants; 2) generate more knowledge on the contributions and capabilities of families in our contemporary society; and 3) intervene more forcefully into adjacent research areas including education, stratification and migration.