The Emergence of the Self-Poietic Family, 1989   

The "silent revolution" of the family, as it was called in the 1970s, has gone on.
In what direction? How can we examine the issues of today’s family in Italy in its wholeness?
This First Report is intended to address these family issues. Its exploration into the Italian family is comprehensive and provides a complete vision of the status of the Italian family for Italian and International readers.
If in the 1970s the family was considered "done for", the 1980s brought about a re-evaluation of the family, which remains vague and ambiguous. The conclusion of this Report shows that contemporary society is generating form of the family that can be called self-poietic (auto-poietica). Today’s family is creating its own rules while escaping the norms society demands. Such a definition of the family is profoundly ambivalent, because it is strong and weak at the same time. In such a family there is a particular psychological and cultural refinement, but also solitude and isolation.
Society is unsure how to react to such changes. The Report addresses these uncertainties by discussing various alternatives to the ambivalent form of the family, showing that contemporany society can generate a family form more able to promote the quality of human life.

The emergence of the "Self-Poietic" family
Pierpaolo Donati

The culture of the family according to opinion polls
Gabriele Calvi

Couples and marriage problems
Eugenia Scabini, Vittorio Cigoli

Family, childhood and adolescence
Paola Di Nicola

Family and woman
Bianca Barbero Avanzini

Family and personal social services
Giovanna Rossi Sciumè

Family and the economic system
Giuseppe De Rita, Carla Collicelli

Legal innovations on the family
Ombretta Fumagalli Carulli