“Individualisation, Internationalisation and Family Policy” is an international seminar co-hosted by the School of Applied Social Science, University College Dublin and the Research Committee on Family Research (RC06) of the International Sociological Association. The seminar will take place between Thursday 20th and Saturday 22nd August 2015 in the purpose built, and state of the art building known as the Quinn School of Business, on the UCD Belfield campus.

Increased opportunities for individuals to exercise autonomy across the life cycle are transforming family life for parents and children and for single people without children. Individualisation also brings a new sense of agency for individuals within a plurality of family forms and therefore presents new challenges for demographic and family policy makers. This new sense of agency and family pluralism is allied to a decline in patriarchy, increased access to contraception and to changing patterns of fertility and demographic change. This seminar recognises the role of epistemic communities of research scholars in contributing to the development of knowledge about the nature of family pluralism and to support family policy transfers across the European Union and between advanced and emerging welfare states and welfare systems within and beyond the OECD. The seminar theme encompasses a wide range of potential research topics on families from sociological, demographic, historical, psychological and educational perspectives.

On behalf of the ISA Family Research Committee and the School of Applied Social Science, the seminar organizing committee cordially invites scholars from the disciplines of sociology, social policy, gender studies and other interested social scientists to participate in this event. The conference theme encompasses a wide range of potential research topics on families from sociological, demographic, historical, psychological, comparative social policy, gender studies and children’s rights perspectives. The local organizing committee also welcomes other suggestions. Please write to Dr Michael Rush (michael.rush@ucd.ie) or Professor Tony Fahey (tony.fahey@ucd.ie) at the school of Applied Social Science, UCD.

If you are interesting in participating please observe the following important dates:

Deadline to submit a (300 word) abstract: Monday, January 12th 2015
Notification of the status of your submission: Monday, February 9th 2015
Registration: from Monday 16th February — Friday 20th March 2015

More information regarding the seminar including events and accommodation will be made available in the coming weeks.

Submit abstracts to michael.rush@ucd.ie