Vom Familienleitbild zur Familiendefinition : Familienberichte und die Entwicklung des familienpolitischen Diskurses

Abstract

Family reports contribute to defining the objects and aims of family policy in the framework of family-policy discourse. This discourse means a public debate on the question of which private life forms will be recognized as families and accordingly entitled to recognition protection as institution and political support. In other words "Familienleitbilder" (family ideals). The cultural frame of this discussion is the traditional ideal of the bourgeois family. This family conception is based upon the two-generational or nuclear family, which is assigned specific functions to fulfil for society, e.g. "producing" a new generation (generative function), educating children or solidarizing family members.On the basis of these considerations the present working paper researches how the ideologically determined "Familienleitbild" (family ideal) of West Germanpost-war family policy, which was basically oriented to this scheme, has been taken up and reformulated in family reports since the middle of the sixties. Family reports can be interpreted as an attempt to replace an ideologically oriented with a rational family policy. In spite of this, they draw up the elements of the traditional "Familienleitbild" (family ideal). They are reformulated in an analytical framework which was developed in the family sociology of the post-war period.