The family culture of negotiation—a result of changing parent‐child relationships

Case studies of parent‐child relations in three different European regions—West Germany, East Germany and the Netherlands—offer material for the comparative analysis of the ongoing intra‐familial process of modernization and civilization in post‐war West European societies. The data are drawn from extended narrative interviews with twelve‐year‐olds and from parallel but separate semi‐structured ‘mirrored’ interviews with the same children and their parents. The results of the analysis show that family relations in general, and parent‐child relations in particular, are increasingly marked by a familial ‘culture of negotiation’. This suggests that the balance of intergenerational power relations is currently in the process of change. To a greater or lesser extent, contemporary family relations are characterized by situationally grounded processes of negotiation between parents and children.