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The Family and the Architect: a
Toss of the Dice for Designers |
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by Jean-Michel LÉGER and
Benoîte
DECUP-PANNIER |
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| How do architects imagine how families inhabit their
living space? And how do families appropriate, use, and adapt the
spatial arrangements programmed by architects? The architects’
intentions are transformed as much by chance inventiveness as by
knowledge of the intended uses. The utopian, revolutionary, or
reformist origins of the « civilizing » mission in planning dwelling
spaces were important references until the evolution of family
structures in terms of the autonomy of children and gender equality
lead to incorporating versatility into the planning of spaces. Only
a thorough evaluation of this architectural approach can validate or
condemn arrangements which can have meaning only in terms of
relationships and of the particular situation of each building, and
this in turn redefines each time the equation struck between the
beautiful and the useful. |
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Conceptions of Living Together
Put to the Test in the Reconstituted Family |
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by Didier LE GALL |
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| When two cohabiting partners separate, there is the
problem of dividing between them the furniture and domestic
appliances. In the case of families recombining we do not so easily
think that there is also here a similar problem. Having two of the
same thing (two cookers, two sofas) means making choices. How do the
new partners manage this delicate problem which is not strictly who
keeps what? but the heavier question of what shall we keep? In this
article the author focuses on the decisive moment, the blind spot of
family recomposition when the future is engaged as much in terms of
the uses of space as of conjugal and family integration. |
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Reading Spaces to Interpret
Sibling Bonds |
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by Aude POITTEVIN |
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The specificity of the stepsibling bonding
can provide insight into the sibling relationship beyond the concept
of a purely biological relationship. The particularity of the
stepsibling bonding, the co-presence of full biological siblings
and/or half-siblings and/or quartersiblings, resides in the decline
of the degree of blood relationship and in the intensification of
the dimension of co-residence. In this type of sibling group,
co-residence is central because it becomes the common denominator
for all the children.
From designated children’s spaces to those
for the family as a whole, the reconstituted family of stepsiblings
lives in several places and consequently modifies how and for what
purposes those spaces are used. Within these interactions which
define being brother or sister, ways of being together and modes of
coexistence are constructed, supported and reconfigured. Key-words:
children, reconstituted families, sibling bonds, family times and
spaces. |
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Reconstituted Families and
Residential Anchoring |
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by Céline CLÉMENT and Catherine
BONVALET |
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| Housing and living arrangements have important
implications for reconstituted families. The aim of this research
was to rephrase research questions on housing and living
arrangements in terms of « life spaces ». Qualitative interviews
show that reconstituted families integrate social ties and space by
coming together and sharing but also sometimes by remaining distinct
and competing with each other. In these types of families, there are
few spaces where parents and children are together at the same time.
At the same time, these situations do not always lead to a breaking
off of relations with the ex-step family. Moreover, there are places
other than the main residence where « family histories » can be
constructed, such as in second homes, even though they can be a
divisive place for families. |
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The Locations of the
Family |
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by Catherine BONVALET and Éva LELIÈVRE
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| Research on the space where kinship relations are
enacted has become a rich approach to the study of contemporary
family life. This article outlines a « theoretical map for family
space », using the place of origin of individuals and other kinship
ties together with current important places (such as second homes or
particular geographical spaces that are frequently used). Using data
from the « Biographies et Entourage » survey, the mosaic of places
that make up the geographical universe of the individual is
constructed by building up these successive layers in order to show
how family territory is conceptualised. The research shows that by
confronting the given family territory with often frequented places
(whether these be place of origin or places defined by where family
members live), family space is shown to extend beyond the immediate
locality of the individual. |
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Temporary Escapism: Socializing
and the Loosening of Social Regulation in Family Holiday
Resorts |
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by Bertrand RÉAU |
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| Holidays provide a break with everyday life. They
appear to vary according to social profiles and holiday packages.
Comparative study made on two holiday resorts gives evidence that
the leisure pursuits there are clearly similar to those which the
social categories in question tend to follow in their everyday
lives. The temporary escapism is based on an intensification of
these practices in new patterns of living and of conxumption… |
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Genesis, Representations and
Uses of the Family Space within the Moorish Bedouins
(Mauritania) |
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by Sébastien BOULAY |
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| The Moorish bedouin families of the west of the Sahara
experience a very close relationship with their emblematic textile
dwelling. The tent shelters the members of the nuclear family and is
integrated into a broader residential unit, the encampment. This
family space presents a cycle of life modeled on that of the married
couple and is in addition submitted to the constraints of mobility
imposed by nomadism. It is in fact an ephemeral space, that the
mother has the responsibility to reinvent after every removal.
Lastly, the exiguous interior space of the tent is deprived of
tangible partitions and its occupation is governed by behavioural
standards and by a system of cultural values which are specific to
this society. |
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Elderly People Living in a
Nursing Home or the Reorganisation of Familial Spaces and
Ties |
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by Isabelle MALLON |
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| Elderly people who enter a nursing home must
reorganise their life, both materially and symbolically. In this act
of rebuilding their own private life in a collective institution,
family ties are a central component, be it positive or negative.
This paper describes the various spaces where institutionnalised
elderly people meet their relatives and how they renegotiate their
family ties. It also focuses on how old people find their place in
their nursing home with or without the help of their family. |
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Family Territories Facing Job
Relocation: Residential Anchorings and Mobilities of Industry
Workers |
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by Cécile VIGNAL |
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| The object of the article is an analysis of the way in
which the family relates to its location influences the decisions of
workers between « residential anchoring » and migration when faced
with the relocation of their company. The analysis is based on a
qualitative enquiry concerning mainly unskilled workers faced with
the closure of their factory in the department of Aisne and its
relocation two hundred kilometres away from their usual place of
residence in the department of Yonne (France). It shows that in
addition to the economic and professional factors, the different
forms of spatial relations and family bonds have an effect upon the
resources that can be called upon and upon the relationship to
territory and to housing. The analysis takes account of the
connection between the ties to family territory and a refusal to
move, of choosing « residential anchoring » or definitive migration
or even dual residence. The importance of family territory explains
geographical choices which could appear at first sight economically
irrational. |
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The Acquisition of Motility in
Families. Status Quo and Research Hypotheses |
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by Vincent KAUFMANN and Éric WIDMER
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| Mobility capital, or « motility », is an essential
part of social integration in very modern societies that are
experiencing an increase in the number of ways in which people can
move through time and space and thereby ensure the simultaneous
presence of beings or actors. Today, strategic choices and mobility
differentiation have taken the place of spatial constraint. In
maintaining that motility is a good basis for analysing the
motivations, decision-making processes and constraints that dominate
the use of space, we intend to show that far from being a purely
personal trait essentially dependent on innate skills or strategies,
motility is constructed within the family sphere, and as such is a
factor in the motivations that govern the functioning and structures
of the family sphere. After presenting the concept of motility and
illustrating its implications for family life and its spatial
manifestations, we will take a look at the effect of family
structures and functioning on the acquisition of motility and on
children leaving home, before going on to explore the links between
residential location and the acquisition of motility and the
tensions that these links can produce between the residential
context and the functioning of the family. We will conclude by
taking a fresh look at the spaces occupied by the family in light of
the research results. |
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Modernity and Sustainable
Development: Peasants on Eastern Amazonian Frontiers |
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by Xavier ARNAULD DE SARTRE |
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| In Brazilian Amazonia, deforestation goes along with
farmers’ migration. These peasant societies adapt the rules of their
social reproduction to their changing socio-economic environment.
These migrations work against the principles of a sustainable
development which aims at a stabilisation of these societies.
Without a utopian change of the socio-economic rules in border
regions, such a stabilisation requires a major social transformation
in the peasant societies. The paper analyses the stakes of this
transformation, focussing on the process of land transfer considered
as a total social fact. The passing on the land to the children is
indeed the best way to keep them near by and available for
assistance, essential values in peasant norms. As a consequence,
when the young refuse the land offered by their parents, they bring
both the end of the migration process and the entry of the peasant
society into modernity. |
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Street Experience Among the
Young as a Extreme Form of Urban Living |
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by Paul WALLEZ and Loïc
AUBRÉE |
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| In this study we observe the wanderings of young
people, between 18 and 29 years old, in the urban area of Lille. The
analysis is based on comparison with a panel group of young people
coming from a working class background who managed to avoid
homelessness. The aim of the study was to examine the
intelligibility of being homeless based on the dialectical
deconstruction of private and public space, being between two
extreme positions: private space reduced to accommodation as its
basic instrumental function loses its reality and drives young
people towards facing an unmediated public space; the loss of
control of public space results in sociability splitting away from
the place where it develops. The birth of a child creates the
dilemma for parents of either having the child taken from them or
leaving the street. The disorientation in which these young people
live provokes in them the fear of a sudden removal from the public
space, either into hospital or prison : being homeless results in a
continuing attempt to reconstruct the private/public dialectic
leading to an extreme form of urban living permanently under
construction. The homeless person, caught between these two
extremes, chooses a transitory and precarious urban life style which
(s)he would like to think of as initiatory. |
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