Overview

FAMILYPLATFORM

FAMILYPLATFORM is a project funded by the European Union’s 7th Framework Programme for a duration of 18 months (October 2009 – March 2011), working to increase the wellbeing of families across Europe.

The work of FAMILYPLATFORM encompasses four key activities ("work packages"):

1. Major Trends: Charts the contemporary field of family research in the EU, assessing existing research and knowledge.
2. Critical Review: Critically reviews existing research identified in activity 1, highlighting current gaps in research and elaborating key policy questions for policy makers.
3. Future of Families: Examines future scenarios using the Foresight Approach, building an understanding of future societal challenges.
4. Research Agenda: Brings together results, ultimately suggesting key areas of research for the European Social Science and Humanities Research Agenda 2012-2013.

Although work begins on the first activity first, and ends with the fourth, many of the activities take place concurrently. Two further work packages dealing with coordination, finances, and dissemination, are the responsibility of Technical University Dortmund and COFACE.

Partners

The work of FAMILYPLATFORM is carried out by the partners, of which their are two kinds:

1. Consortium: Manage the activities and produce the reports.
2. Advisory Board: Provide expert advice and guidance to the Consortium.

All Consortium members, their roles and responsibilities, and the individuals involved, are listed to the left (under the menu titled "Partners").

The success of the project hinges on the involvement of a wide variety of stakeholders, either through face-to-face contact in conferences and focus groups, or through online debate and discussion. Consortium Members will produce a lot of reports and as these documents become available, they'll be made public to allow registered Stakeholders to make comment and have an input into the work. This ensures that as wide a variety of perspectives as possible are taken into account within FAMILYPLATFORM.

You can get involved in the online debate and discussions if you are registered and have provided a sufficient level of detail in your online profile; this ensures that there is transparency in the FAMILYPLATFORM. Registered Stakeholders - people who have registered on this website - can be found in the Stakeholder Directory, and both Partners and Stakeholders are both included on the Map of Participants. Please note that this website includes several protected areas, designed to facilitate the work of partners; unauthorised users do not have access to these areas.

Existential Fields

FAMILYPLATFORM breaks down family life into the following 'Eight Existential Fields':

1. Family Structures and Family Forms
2. Family Development Processes
3. State Family Policies
4. Family and Living Environments
5. Family Management
6. Social Care and Social Services
7. Social Inequality and Diversity of Families
8. Media & Family Education

You can search for materials relating to any of these Existential Fields, using the 'Tags' (keywords to the left); for information about this and other features on the website visit our Website Guide. For more general information, please take a look at our printable flyer, or read through some of the presentations about the project in the Document Library.

Contact Us

Always feel free to contact us if you have any queries or comments.