Einstein Center Population Diversity (ECPD) – Family Diversity

Objective 1 of the Einstein Center Population Diversity (ECPD) – Unfolding unequal life courses within diverse families in aging societies.

The ECPD is a multi- and transdisciplinary research endeavour. The research is carried out by a consortium of seven partners in Berlin, including the WZB, that will study the consequences of increasing population diversity for social inequality and health disparities by focusing on the growing diversity of families, including changing conceptions and boundaries of the family itself.

Objective 1 aims to advance the understanding and conceptualisation of family and family diversity through in-depth reviews of scientific literature, legal frameworks and official statistics, co-creative interaction with a “citizen panel”, and quantitative survey experiments.

Major goals of Objective 1 are to map the diversity of family definitions, how the latter vary according to age, gender, education, migration background, LGBTQ identity, or religious orientations, and how they shape both perceptions and actual behaviour with respect to, for example, care obligations and social support more broadly.

Research Questions:

- How is family membership defined in family law, official statistics, and by individuals?

- How does family diversity shape people’s perceptions of relationships and expectations relating to mutual responsibility and support?

Einstein Center Population Diversity: https://einstein-diversity.com/research/