Globalization and Families - Accelerated Systemic Social Change

As our world becomes increasingly interconnected through economic integration, technology, communication, and political transformation, the sphere of the family is a fundamental arena where globalizing processes become realized.  For most individuals, family in whatever configuration, still remains the primary arrangement that meets certain social, emotional, and economic needs. It is within families that decisions about work, care, movement, and identity are negotiated, contested, and resolved. Globalization has profound implications for how families assess the choices and challenges that accompany this process.  Families are integrated into the global economy through formal and informal work, through production and consumption, and through their relationship with nation-states.  Moreover, ever growing communication and information technologies allow families and individuals to have access to others in an unprecedented manner.  These relationships are accompanied by new conceptualizations of appropriate lifestyles, identities, and ideologies even among those who may never be able to access them.