{"id":5427,"date":"2020-07-20T21:14:45","date_gmt":"2020-07-20T19:14:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.seele-und-sorge.de\/?page_id=5427"},"modified":"2024-07-08T00:05:58","modified_gmt":"2024-07-07T22:05:58","slug":"changing-patterns-of-the-family-implications-for-the-future-of-care","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.seele-und-sorge.de\/?page_id=5427","title":{"rendered":"Changing Patterns of the Family \u2013 Implications for the Future of Care"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

One of the\nmost fervent wishes of most people is to enjoy a happy family life and a stable\npartnership. 82% of all Germans want children and, in a survey by the pollster\nAllensbach Institute, 84% of the population stated that the times among their\nclosest family were strong or very strong.[1]<\/sup><\/a>\nMarriage and a family are still values central to the life of the vast majority\nof the population; they are, however, in competition with other ways of life\nand have come under pressure through changes in society. It is debatable\nthough, whether we can say that marriage has suffered a loss of importance;\nperhaps it is just that expectations are now higher. And perhaps the low birth\nrate reflects a very conscious parental responsibility. There is obviously a\ntension between the wish for stable marriages and families, on the one hand,\nand societal reality with high divorce rates and a large number of singles and\nlone parents, on the other. Here are some of the fundamental processes of\nchange to which families have contributed, and challenges they face:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First:<\/strong> Long periods of education and training,\nand difficulties in entering working life. The consequence is that women are\nhaving children later in life and putting off the time more and more. On\naverage, women give birth for the first time at the age of 29, according to\ncurrent figures. The window of\nopportunity for founding a family has therefore become shorter.<\/strong> 60% of\nchildren are born to mothers aged between 26 and 35. Reproductive medicine is\nplaying an increasing role in this context.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second: <\/strong>A third of all children are born out of\nwedlock, which is twice as many as only twenty years ago. There is a marked\ndifference between the western and eastern parts of Germany: there the\npercentage of children born to unmarried parents is, respectively, 28% and 61%.\nThe connection between marriage and births \u2013 and thus also between marriage and\nthe family \u2013 is dissolving. While 72% of families still consist of parents with\nchildren,[2]<\/a> families\nbased on marriage are increasingly turning into patchwork configurations. So there is increasing diversity in family\nlife. <\/strong>The make-up of a family is not just a matter of fate – it is more and\nmore a \u201cdo-it-yourself\u201d community based on conscious, often tense decisions,\nfrom family planning to a patchwork family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Third: The societal and economic gap is\ngrowing – <\/strong>not only\nbecause social milieus are rapidly falling apart.There is a striking polarisation in the way single and double\nearner households are socially situated, particularly between those caring for\nchildren and those with no children to look after. Due to problems with their work-life balance, women often put off their\ncareer ambitions as soon as children are born, and work part-time. At the same\ntime, however, family work brings little financial reward \u2013 at most if it is rooted in a marriage\nor life partnership. For that reason, too, single parents, who can hardly work\nfull time, show above-average rates of income poverty.[3]<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In terms of family policy, the German\nmodel is somewhere in the middle compared to other countries. On the one hand,\nwith a high rate of women in employment, individual taxation, government-funded\ncare and whole-day schools there is Lutheran Scandinavia with its strong public\nhealth system as well as secular, centralized France. On the other hand, an even\ngreater privatisation of family and care services is taking place in Catholic Italy\nor Spain. Here – even more clearly than in a comparison of eastern and western\nGermany \u2013 we see that the birth rate is high where infrastructural services\npermit employment and, where they are lacking, it is particularly low. This is\nquite obviously independent of the picture of the family normally represented on\nreligious grounds or as an ethical norm. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fourth:<\/strong> The cultural\ndiversity of families is growing<\/strong>. Just under 30% have a migration\nbackground, according to a 2009 microcensus in Germany, with a quarter of\nmigrant families coming from Turkey. In inter-confessional marriages, in\npartnerships in which only one member belongs to a church and, in particular,\nin bicultural families with different religious backgrounds it is a challenge\nto get to know the different traditions\nand, where possible, find common ways forward. That applies particularly with\nrespect to ritualised rites of passage such as weddings, baptisms or\ncircumcision, and burial. Where that does not succeed the trend towards\nsecularisation grows. Here lies a great challenge for the churches and mosque\ncommunities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Behind the current\nstatistics lie long-term processes of change.<\/strong> Globalisation, along with opportunities\nfor travel and working abroad, is ever more frequently leading to partnerships\nacross national and cultural borders. And the medical potential for family\nplanning has accelerated the women\u2019s emancipation movements that began long ago.\nWe live in a work society and the growing expectations of worker mobility have\na centrifugal impact; they make it hard to keep families together in space and\ntime. Many couples go through phases of life in which they are separated for\nlong periods for work reasons. This affects every third couple in their early working\nlife \u2013 i.e. in the period of founding a family \u2013 and for many it is the natural\nprice of professional mobility and a career. Fathers from declining regions are\noften away from their families during the week because they commute long\ndistances. Living alone has not been a transitory stage for a long time now. Remaining\nsingle seems to be the best way of living out the values of an individualist\nsociety, according to US sociologist Eric Klinenberg. Living alone means\nautonomy: freedom, self-fulfilment and self-control.[4]<\/a> In the\ndeclining regions the buildings remain behind, along with older people, who\nfind it hard to sell their houses, and mothers with small children \u2013 everyone\nwho is particularly dependent on others. When their survival on the labour\nmarket is in question, everything that ties people together is in question \u2013\nthe town, house or flat, and the family. For\nthe first time, the majority of the population no longer lives in family\nhouseholds.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In view of the low birth rate, the upcoming\nshortage of skilled labour and the deep-seated structural change on the labour\nmarket, individuals are not the only ones facing the issue of how to best\ncombine education, gainful employment and caring for a family \u2013 and with more\ngender justice as well. That raises a great sociopolitical challenge, extending\nfar beyond the field of classical family policy. After all, the dynamic of\nchange is increasing and there is a growing expectation of mobility. While\nchanging in jobs and status was something that took place from generation to\ngeneration, even up to the period after World War II, since the late 20th<\/sup>\ncentury people have had<\/a>[u1]<\/a> [CC2]<\/a>  several professions and often several\npartnerships in the course of their own lives. The sheer number of work and life\nrelationships is rising and the possibility of putting down roots in one place\nis dwindling. It is no wonder that many people yearn to be able to find their\nplace in the great, sometimes disturbing transformation processes, to feel at\nhome in a reliable community \u2013 in their family, home region, friendships. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But individualisation and acceleration\nalso show up in a microcosm: the different rhythms of business life, school and\nleisure-time clash within the family. Often only Sunday or public holidays are\nleft for family members to really enjoy each other\u2019s company \u2013 eating, talking\nand playing together. When families celebrate together \u2013 at Christmas or on\nbirthdays \u2013 memories of their common history resurface, changes become visible,\nand rituals help to interpret experiences. At the same time, fixed expectations\nmay lead to disappointments. After all, the structure of a family changes\nconstantly; it is always having to take on a fresh shape and form.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While it is true that the family\nlost fundamental political, economic and legal functions with the onset of modernity<\/a><\/strong>[u3]<\/a> [CC4]<\/a> , it is still of paramount\nimportance for socialisation, social reproduction, mutual care and societal\ncohesion.<\/strong> Passing on values and traditions, raising and\nlooking after children, care and nursing, the sharing of common tasks and\nsolidarity between the generations \u2013 all that is practised in families. However\nimportant it is to have a good infrastructure for a work-life balance,\ndelegating care work completely to service-providers is unthinkable, nor is it\ndesirable. This is because the necessary trained carers are in short supply and\nbecause financing such an infrastructure would lead to considerable social\nredistribution. Above all, it is because care tasks involve more than providing\npaid services. They enable the experiencing of community, for which social cohesion is essential. According to studies, mothers\nand fathers wish for a better combination of long part-time or short full-time work\nand family time.[5]<\/a>\nFor that to succeed, the time people spend on upbringing and care must also be taken\ninto account in legislation on taxes and social insurance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Historically speaking, the care work\ndone in the family has become increasingly invisible and disparaged<\/strong>. This happened first when it was known as \u201cwomen\u2019s\nwork\u201d, against the background of the traditional bourgeois concept of the\nfamily with its gender-hierarchical division of labour. It continued with the\nmomentum of the work-oriented movement for women\u2019s emancipation, which\ndissolved the traditional gender hierarchy in which women did the family work.\nAnd today, care work is still not highly esteemed by a society based on paid\nwork and consumerism, in which what costs nothing is worth nothing. That\napplies to the activity of carers in the private sphere, but also to\nprofessional care, which continues to be much more poorly paid than work in\nproduction and administration.[6]<\/a> If it is not possible to find new solutions there is likely to be a\ncare shortage. That will come at a great cost to families, the educational\nsystem and the working world.<\/strong> And it is not just a matter of the necessary\ntasks of bringing up children. Most elderly persons are still cared for in a\nhome environment and 70% of family carers are women. While more and more\nprofessionals are needed in the care market, estimates at the same time give\nthe number of those requiring home care in ten years<\/a>[u5]<\/a>  as approx. two million[u6]<\/a> . There is great pressure on women to take on this\nunpaid role and therefore growing tension between the working world, where both\ngenders are expected to contribute equally, and the bias towards female\ncaregivers in the family. One<\/a>[u7]<\/a>  proposal of the German family ministry is to allow\nfor a reduction in working hours for both men and women during the intensive\nphases of care work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Evangelical\nChurch in Germany (EKD) in 2013 produced a reference text focusing on this area\nof tension \u201cbetween autonomy and dependence\u201d[7]<\/strong><\/a>\n<\/strong>and underlined\nthe importance of strengthening family-based caring communities. It regards the\ninstitution\nof marriage as a particularly suitable area of legal protection for this\ncommunity; marriage also offers a legal setting for the economic support of care\nwork. The booklet concludes, however, that the guiding line of a Protestant\nfamily policy must be a consistent strengthening of all caring relationships: \u201cThe framework in which people live as a family and in partnership\nmust not be the main factor. All family relationships in which people freely\nbond with others, take responsibility for one another and enter into a reliable\npartnership must be able to rely on the Protestant church.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

 What we understand by family is constantly changing,\nand it would be far too simple to understand this change as a story of\ndecadence. After all, growing rights for women, children and same-sex partners\nhave gone hand in hand with a great increase in freedom. In Germany too,\nEuropean law with its protection from discrimination, has promoted individual\nequality and changed the relationship between e.g. legitimate and illegitimate\nchildren or homo- and heterosexual persons. Protection from discrimination has\nalso changed the protection of marriage and the family as caring communities. Quite\napart from the form they take, which has regularly changed over the centuries,\nthe relations between family members are of such significance that, throughout\nthe whole Bible, they come to symbolise the relationship with God. They also form \u201cthe\nbackground without which a host of biblical stories and texts cannot be\nsufficiently understood\u201d.[8]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Living together in the\nfamily has a decisive influence on the way we understand God. The family is a vital\nplace of learning faith. From the start, families and the Christian community were\nrelated. The congregation enables an extended \u2018familiarity\u2019, which includes\nsingles and can also support families in different ways<\/strong>. In the 19th<\/sup> century, kindergartens\nand elderly care homes came into being in Christian parishes and the religious\norders lived together in family structures. Mutual care-giving in biological families\nand elective families was an important factor for stabilising society at the\ntime of industrialisation. For that reason, the New Testament statements\ncritical of the family have an essential function – Jesus too stresses that a\nfamily is not primarily a blood relationship but an elective kinship in God (\u201cWhoever\ndoes the will of my father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother\u201d).[9]<\/a> That\nis why church communities were, and are, able to take on the role of a family \u2013\nas was the case very early, in the monasteries and convents that were a role\nmodel for the diaconal communities of the 19th<\/sup> century. Even today,\nin the second great transformation after industrialisation<\/a>[u8]<\/a> [CC9]<\/a> , the aim must, above all,\nbe to enhance the well-being of all. In families and beyond, in neighbourhood\nnetworks and in caring communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

[1]<\/a> Figures from Allensbach and Robert\nBosch Foundation from 2013<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[2]<\/a> Federal Ministry for Family\nAffairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth, Familienreport 2012, 22.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[3]<\/a> With one child they have a 46% risk\nof poverty, with two and more children even a 62% risk. In households led by\ncouples, the poverty risk is between 7% and 22%, depending on the number of\nchildren. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

[4]<\/a> Those living alone in the US have\nrisen from 9% in the 1950s to 27%.  In Scandinavia the figure stands at 47%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Klinenberg,\nEric: \u201eVivre seul, mais pas solitaire\u201c, in Le Monde Diplomatique, March 2013<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[5]<\/a> See the Institute for\nEmployment Research (IAB – the Research Institute of the Federal Employment Agency).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[6]<\/a>\nSee also Anke Spory, Familie im Wandel, Kulturwissenschaftliche, soziologische\nund theologische Reflexionen, Waxmann Verlag (M\u00fcnster, NY, M\u00fcnchen, Berlin), 2013<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[7]<\/a>\nZwischen Autonomie und Angewiesenheit: Familie als verl\u00e4ssliche Gemeinschaft\nst\u00e4rken, EKD. English press\nreport: https:\/\/archiv.ekd.de\/english\/ekd_press_releases-pr_2013_06_19_resource_material%20_family.html<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

[8]<\/a>\nEvangelical Church in Central Germany (EKM): Im Blickpunkt: Familie, 2007<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[9]<\/a>\nMatthew 12: 50<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

 [u1]<\/a>Die\nPostmoderne f\u00e4ngt mit 1989 an, habe ich gerade gelesen. Scheint ziemlich\nwillk\u00fcrlich zu sein, je nach (franz\u00f6sischem) Autor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 [CC2]<\/a>Genauso\nist es. Zudem nat\u00fcrlich eine westliche Perspektive. Aber Ihr Text ist gut so!\nDANKE<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0[u3]<\/a>The industrial age? Das w\u00e4re ein Leitmotiv <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 [CC4]<\/a>Nein,\ndas beginnt ja schon ca 1830 \u2013 und die starke legale Rolle der Familie reicht\nmindestens bis nach dem ersten Weltkrieg\u2026 Lasen wir es so ..<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 [u5]<\/a>Alternative (ten years weglassen): <\/p>\n\n\n\n

in the\nfuture as far higher than the present  approx. two million  (Quelle s.u.) Aber \u201cdie Zukunft\u201d isr nicht\nklar genug. Schreiben Sie 2025<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 [u6]<\/a>1,86\nMillion bekommen homecare im Jahre 2015<\/p>\n\n\n\n

http:\/\/maennep.web.th-koeln.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/IPS_21-5-2015.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

 [u7]<\/a>Letzer\nSatz hinzugef\u00fcgt, scheint zu passen.ok- <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dann anh\u00e4ngen: not only in times of birth gvibing and\neducation but also in times of nursing and elder care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 [u8]<\/a>Erkl\u00e4rend\neingef\u00fcgt; Echo der Erw\u00e4hnung der Industrialisierung nur 6 Zeilen fr\u00fcher<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 [CC9]<\/a>Prima,\ndanke<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the most fervent wishes of most people is to enjoy a happy family life and a stable partnership…. read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":492,"menu_order":91,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-5427","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seele-und-sorge.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5427"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seele-und-sorge.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seele-und-sorge.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seele-und-sorge.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seele-und-sorge.de\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5427"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.seele-und-sorge.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5427\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7671,"href":"https:\/\/www.seele-und-sorge.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5427\/revisions\/7671"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seele-und-sorge.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seele-und-sorge.de\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}