Österreichische Zeitschrift für Soziologie 49 (2024), 3

This special issue provides an insight and overview of current family research in Austria, bringing together a wide variety of questions and topics, different theoretical perspectives, distinctive methodological approaches, and many important findings—with no claim to be exhaustive. It originates from the Family Research Section of the Austrian Sociological Association (ÖGS), founded in 2021, which pursues the goal of advancing knowledge and know-how in this specialised field of sociology, aims to make sociological family research in Austria visible and accessible, and builds on a strong tradition of family research and various strands of institutionalized and systematic family research in Austria, like the Austrian Institute for Family Studies (ÖIF; since 1994), the Austrian Society for Interdisciplinary Family Studies (ÖGIF; from 1988 to 2018), various conventions for family research (e.g., Kapella et al. 2009, 2018), the Family Reports published every ten years since 1969 (most recently BKA/FFJI 2021), and a number of data collection efforts, ranging from “Living with children” (1978 and 1981/82; first panel data on Austrian families, see Münz 1985) to the Austrian Generations and Gender Survey (most recently Neuwirth et al. 2023). With its methodological and thematic diversity, the present compilation of recent findings from family research is a novelty for Austria, an important contribution to the goals of the ÖGS Section, and a sign to continue the tradition of cohesive family research in Austria.

The focus of this special issue, but also of the work within the Family Research Section, is on family lives and intimate relationships in Austria, based on inclusive definitions of family in the broadest sense. Family is defined as a social network of relationships, characterized by relative exclusivity and stability, between two or more people, connected through solidarity, commitment, and responsibility. Thus, family forms can be diverse, and a family is not necessarily centred in a single household (Gouveia and Castrén 2021; Schneider 2008). Furthermore, family is increasingly understood as something that emerges and must be produced through daily practices and everyday interactions (Morgan 2013). Family is thus not conceived as a pre-existent structure or static entity to which individuals belong to, but as a dynamic process in relation to time periods, spaces, bodies, and technologies (Jurczyk 2020, 2014). Moreover, family is linked to many other interdependent life areas like professional work, private and public environments, economic, political and cultural contexts, the media or religions.