#20 Thoughts on family in less than 100 words

Philip Brownes says that the concept of "family" is both a biological reality and a social construct that has changed and evolved over time within different cultural contexts. In the west - and increasingly in other parts of the world - there has been a slow but steady move away from traditional notions of the family as nuclear or extended, to more flexible, fluid and disparate variants of association. The concept of family can now be viewed as negotiated spaces where individuals forge bonds in larger or smaller groups to share resources, assets and emotions in a way that creates safety, security and wellbeing for all family members.