Changing Family Patterns in Chile: Social Disintegration and Social Policy

Scholars from Chile and the US gathered Aug. 12-13, 2004, to share research findings and consider possible recommendations at a conference, "Changing Family Patterns in Chile: Social Disintegration and Social Policy." The gathering, hosted by the Kellogg Institute, was the third of four planned conferences taking a long-term approach toward addressing Chile's substantial social changes.

Those developments include changing family patterns, declining rates of marriage and high levels of births to unwed mothers. While Chileans are conducting a public debate that is framed in terms of moral values and decaying family life, the debate "has not been informed by systematic social science research," say the three co-directors of the project. They are Rev. Timothy Scully, CSC; J. Samuel Valenzuela; and Eugenio Tironi. Scully and Valenzuela are Kellogg Faculty Fellows, and Tironi, a former Kellogg Visiting Fellow, is one of Chile's leading political sociologists.

The three are leading an effort to delineate the actual characteristics and problems of Chilean families, as well as other factors such as the conditions faced by women in the country. Five research teams probed different aspects of the situation, including history and demographics, family life, marriage, poverty, the household and the workplace. The exchange of their findings at the August conference will serve to prepare for a concluding conference to be held in Santiago this October. The participants anticipate that the project will result in a book, with chapters written by the conference organizers, as well as leading Chilean social scientists.

Agenda