La familia en el Siglo XXI.
SUMMARIES

Couples construction, individualisation and family change
MARTA IBAÑEZ PASCUAL

This paper attempts to relate two analytical levels for the comprehension of family changes. It assumes three basic changes, easily observable in the official returns: a fall in the figures of fecundity, a divorce increase, and the rise of commercial labour among married women. It reflects on the processes of individualisation in the couple's construction.

The construction of "singularity" with in American couples
JANET STOCKS & FRANK WILSON

This work reveals how the individualistic American ideology makes the couples studied in it to self portray themselves as unique, as long as they do not follow, in some way, the ideal family model depicted on television since the 1950's. The lack of state support of public policies, such as health services and child welfare, is linked to this ideology, creating a sense of fragmentation within American couples.

Under the apparent gender equality. Money's distribution in Swedish families
CHARLOTT NYMEN Y LASSE REENIKAINEN

Although Sweden is probably "the most egalitarian country in the world", the authors show, through the study of several couples' life, how, in practical terms, there is a traditional division of labour, and a lack of balance in what has to do with economic decisions, the power of controlling and using the money. This unbalance tends to be discriminatory against women.

Parejas, dinero y desigualdades de g6nero: reflexiones teóricas
JUTTA ALLMENDINGER, WOLMANG LUDWAGMAYERHOFER
JANINA VON STEOUT, CHRESTINE WOMBAUER

The sociology of the family claims that processes of individualization lead to an increasing de-institutionalisation or even dissolution of traditional families because of the equal status of men and women within families. We question the assumption of equality by pointing out that important resources such as money may not be distributed equally within couples, and that decision- making about financial matters may hide important inequalities. However, the present knowledge about these matters is far from satisfactory. It may be claimed that according to Simmel this is a necessary result given the incompatibility between money' as the most abstract aspect of modernity and 'love' as its most personal and intimate expression. However, following Bourdieu we argue that at the core of the 'invisible inequalities' within couples lies the incompatibility of modern notions of 'equality' within couples and the gendered inequalities that are a persistent feature of couples even in our times.

Two negotiation procedures in marriage and identity in the metropolitan outskirts of Mexico D. F
ALICIA LINDON

This work introduces some reflections on the pair 'iclentity/roles" in the interacting context of those couples living in working class areas of Mexico D.F.'s metropolitan outskirts. The problem of identity is approached on the basis of social subjectivity, and roles, these understood from the perspective of everyday life practices. The analysis of life's narratives culminates in two typical-ideal models of negotiation of the pair identity/roles in the context of the couple, a silent or not spoken negotiation, and a partial negotiation.

Family and State. The welfare's distribution
NEREA EGUREN

This papers attempts to study in depth the relationship between the services given by families in order to keep their members' life's standards and welfare, and State's response to families' demands and needs. Family-State relationship is analysed in the context of European countries, emphasising the Spanish case. The author points out a number of goals that, in her opinion, should be abided by family policies carried out in Spain.

New couple forms. The same-sex couples
GERARDO MEIL LANDWERLIN

The author analyses gay and lesbian couples' projects and models once the homosexual identity began to establish and strengthen in the 1960's, a phenomenon accompanied by the aim to setting-up regular and juridically recognised homosexual engagements. This works concludes that the creation of a law that regulates registered partnerships is needed in order to provide an appropriate framework that may solve the problems existing within registered partnerships.

Family and Society: to look and to be looked from the old age
MIGUEL ARENAS MARTINEZ

The old age has been usually characterised by its descendants' support and the families created by them. Despite the heavy family and labour changes that has affected the families themselves in the last years, this support has eloquently increased. That is the reason why, as opposed to the existing negative social images on the old age, the elderly have appeared to be constant available figures, suitable for help, recognised as an stability factor whom we may turn to quite frequently.

A socio-juridical analysis of the regulation process on parejas de hecho in Spain
TERESA PECONTÓ NOVALES

A majority of the population has stopped considering marriage as the only possible entrance to the conjugal life, but other alternative models have not been juridically recognised yet. State laws regulate fragmentarily and scatteredly only some of the juridical effects of the parejas de hecho (some labour benefits, joint adoption, the use of assisted reproduction technics, among others), yet there is no global regulation whatsoever. We cannot say either that the approval of some laws on regular couples in certain Comunidades Autónomas has solved this problem. The approval of Navarra's Foral law 6/2000, of 3rd July, has provided us with a close-up of a basic pitfall of this process of legislative reform: the homosexual couples' demand of a full juridical recognition. That is the reason why we will focus on this Law and one of the most important issues raised by it: the homosexual couples' right to adopt minors. These couples treatment not only needs of an approach that avoids any stereotype but provides certain rationality to the existing controversy on matters such as adoption. Some of the heated debates on this issue have forgotten something essential: nobody has the right to adopt. The viewpoint must be exactly the opposite: children are the only ones who have the right to grow up in an appropriate family environment. Legislation must cover this child's higher interest, whatever the socially majority opinions may be.

Urban restoration in Lisbon
MARIA LUISA LOURÉS SEOANE

The Revolution of 1974 and the admission into the European Union in 1986 mark a significant change in the economical and political fields in Portugal, which determine and operate the urban and territorial development. The author points out that simultaneously to the proliferation of malls, the recuperation of the Expo'98 area, the stretching of the subway, all of them necessary actions to get the city ready for the new political and economical scenery, the historical town's centre of Lisbon was deserted. Only from 1990 it is being faced real politics on urban rehabilitation based upon two models of urban management, the GTL and the Integration Projects, the activity of which is resulting in the expulsion of the poorest social sectors from the town's centre.

The wind took the left 1 loved so much away
MARCO WINOCUR

The Marxist left suffers from the same harm everywhere: the lost of identity. It does not know what it wants, neither who stands for. Considering its past from the critical point of view of the present may be a helpful option to be added to the process of selfcomprehension in which the Left is involved; but also something that may clarify the mysteries of a world where the correlation of forces, far from benefit it, recalls what was said in XV century Spain: "God is at the Saracen's side while we the Christians are the fewer". The author, who was a member of the Argentinean Communist Party, recounts his experiences, closely linked to left-wing past and present matters such as theory and practice.

The old way, the post-modermist fashion and the continuous decadence of aesthetics in Latin America
H. C. F. MANSILLA

The author's work tries to offer a brief overview of the postmodernist influence on the Latin-American intellectual and artistic field. It makes a critique of the prevalence played by the present modernism in different aspects of the social reality, performing an analysis of the advantages and disadvantages featuring the cultural traditions of the new world, making an effort to profit what's really useful