Galway will focus on the changing nature and meaning of family and its implications for policy and practice.

‘Changing Families, Changing Policy, Changing Practice: Family Support Now and in the Future’ is the topic for the two-day conference at the Institute for Lifecourse and Society at NUI Galway on Thursday and Friday.

Implications

In Ireland, recent constitutional changes in children’s rights, same-sex marriage, and divorce have implications for the experience of family life and what it means to be a parent, child, sibling, or grandparent. 

Many of the repercussions of these changes have yet to be explored, the organisers believe. 

 UCFRC co-founder Dr John Canavan has called for a new commission on the family.

 “It is now time for a new commission on the family, 21 years after the original commission report was published resulting in a range of significant policy and service developments,” he says.

“The intervening years have seen massive changes in families and affecting family life. While there has been many individual and sectoral policy and service responses, Irish society has not had the opportunity to reflect on what these changes mean and what their implications are now and into the future.

Reassess

“A new commission would be an opportunity to reassess the meaning and significance of family in Ireland, and to plan accordingly for the next 20 years,” says the academic.

International speakers at the conference, including academics and practitioners from Ireland, Britain, US and Australia, will debate the changing forms of family life and their meaning.

Impact

The programme will consider the impact of technology on family dynamics, integration and migration issues, and family separation.

For more information and to register, visit http://conference.ie/Conferences/index.asp?Conference=58