Beyond states and markets: Families and family regimes in Latin America

Abstract

Much of the literature on social policies and social development in Latin America recognizes the notion of welfare regimes as critical to our understanding of the social protection and well-being of individuals, granting thus a relevant role to markets, states, families and their interactions (Filgueira 2007; Martínez Franzoni 2007). Yet while states—through social, labor and regulatory policies, and their impact on employment, wages and access to goods and services—have received broad and in-depth scrutiny, families have been rather neglected. This chapter seeks to contribute to correct this blind-spot by looking at the structural trends regarding family change and at how they are fueled by— and interact with—markets and state transformations. Such trends and dynamics radically alter the capacity and role of families as units of social protection and of resource enclosure and distribution. Gender, age and family arrangements are transformed and create different family regimes with relevant implications regarding the capacity and type of protection families provide to their different members.