Family and social development: Between the risk and the capital

Abstract

This paper analyzes the relationship between family and social development in Serbia and Macedonia at the time of post-socialist transformation, stressing the ambivalence between risk and capital. The theoretical starting point is provided, first, by the theory of structuration by French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu and an analysis of traditional and modern patriarchate by feminists author Carol Patmen. The paper d eals with three issues: 1. the role of extended families; 2. retraditionalisation of the woman’s role in the family; and 3. violence against women as a health risk: the risks of birth control and symbolic risks (of strengthening traditional authority and marital power of men). The study relied on the following data sources: 1. statistical data for Serbia and Macedonia; 2. research findings by Vera Ehrlich, “Family in the Transformation - the Study of Three Hundred Yugoslav Villages”; 3. findings from two sample investigations: a) the study by the Institute for Sociological Research of the Faculty of Philosophy on a representative sample, b) the study of the position of rural women on the sample of 580 rural families under observation in six districts of the central Serbia (Zlatiborski, Šumadijski, Rasinski, the City of Belgrade, Nišavski and Borski). Special attention will be paid to the regions of Macedonia along the border with Serbia - Pološki, Skopje and the Northeastern.