Exploring Relationships between Social Policy and Changing Family Forms within the European Union

This article examines critically the linkages posited between social policy and changing family forms in European Union member states since the 1960s. While lower fertility rates, changing family patterns, population ageing and the rapid growth in women's economic activity can be shown to provoke policy responses, evidence for a causal impact of policy on demographic behaviour and for the diffusion of policies between countries is inconclusive. The article argues that policy environments are shaped by a complex array of factors, which may appear, in certain configurations, to be conducive to family building or to the development of particular family forms.