Unequal families and relationships

Next week we shall be hosting our 5th International Conference in Edinburgh; on Monday we shall welcome over 200 delegates from 31 countries. 

Here, CRFR co-director Dr Jeni Harden introduces the conference and next week some of our keynote speakers will be posting to our blog. For those who are unable to join us, you can follow the conversations on twitter using the hashtag #CRFR2016.

 We chose inequality as the theme for our 5th conference, reflected in our conference name ‘Unequal Families and Relationships’. Inequalities and social divisions are created, reflected, reinforced and sometimes subverted within families and personal relationships. We received a fantastic response to the call for papers, which has allowed us to produce a very interesting programme for the three days.

In the paper sessions we will address some key questions: How are social divisions and inequalities experienced within the context of families and personal relationships? How do inequalities of gender, social class, ethnicity, sexuality, disability and generation, intersect within and between families, households or friendship groups? How are families and relationships implicated in sexism, racism and bigotry, as well as political resistance to injustice and encouragement of inclusiveness, fairness and equality? What comparisons can we draw between the global north and global south?

We are also very pleased to have keynote speakers who are leaders in the field of families and relationships. Julia Brannen; Kyung Sup Chang; Kathleen Gerson; Lynn Jamieson; David Morgan; Peter Moss.

We are introducing a couple of new things to the conference this time – Skills Taster sessions providing a brief introduction to a range of methods used in researching with children and families and the Evelyn Gillan Research Impact Prize for families and relationships research that has influenced the lives of children, families, or households. The prize, supported by the Scottish Government is in memory of our late colleague Evelyn Gillan (1959-2015).

We hope that everyone attending the conference will have an enjoyable and inspiring time. Remember to join the conversation on twitter #CRFR2016.