This course reviews central issues related to family studies, with a special focus on the relationship between family practices and social, economic and political processes. Historical developments that lead to changes in family structure will be examined, alongside central theoretical perspectives on family life and family change.  The main topics to be discussed include demographic processes related to family life – marriage, divorce and childbirth; alternative family structures; the division of labor in the family and its relationship to women’s position within the family and in society at large; and the effect of social policies on the family.