In her lectures concerning the sociology of family-concepts Cornelia Helfferich examines human bonds in private and public life from different perspectives and contributes an input to the subject of the current change in the family. For that, she analyses individual biographies and differences between the sexes in the context of historical changes in the image of the family in Germany. Within the framework of this analysis, she provides new insights into this issue by connecting different approaches. Her research includes the individual planning of relationships, the emphasis of the status of gender perspectives within genealogy as well as a closer look at the current change of the family which developed more and more into a “private life form”. Particularly due to that, a differentiated approach became necessary. This fact is illustrated by the author within the analysis of different studies concerning family planning realised by the Sozialwissenschaftliches FrauenForschungsInstitut Freiburg, Germany (“SOFFI F.”).
Cornelia Helfferich is professor at the Evangelische Hochschule für Soziale Arbeit, Diakonie und Religionspädagogik in Freiburg, Germany. In 2007, she received the Helge-Pross-Preis by the University of Siegen. The author acts as the first chairwoman of the Institut für Qualitative Sozialforschung Freiburg, Germany, and founded the Sozialwissenschaftliches FrauenForschungsInstitut “SOFFI F.” at the Evangelische Hochschule in 1995. Helfferich’s research projects concerning gender-related issues are organized in cooperation with the Bundeszentrale für gesundheitliche Aufklärung (BZgA) in Cologne, Germany.
The following Helge Pross lectures have been collected and published in the same series:
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