FAMILYPLATFORM’s aim was to develop and publish a European Research Agenda
for Research on Families and Family Policy, in order to enable policy makers and
others to respond to current and future challenges facing families. Four concrete
steps were taken towards elaborating the Research Agenda:
1. Charting the contemporary field of research on families and family policy in
the EU.
2. Critically reviewing existing research involving a wide range of stakeholders.
3. An innovative exercise to identify future challenges facing families, so as to
highlight future policy issues and develop questions for future research.
4. Bringing together all of the work into a Research Agenda on Families and
Family Wellbeing for Europe.
Each of these areas has a dedicated chapter in this book, presenting the main
results and findings of this work.
More than 120 civil society representatives, policy makers, and scientific experts
were involved in the work of FAMILYPLATFORM. The sharing and negotiating of
sometimes contradictory perspectives and thoughts was an exciting challenge
for everyone involved, resulting in a great deal of shared learning. We hope
that this book passes on some of these rich experiences, thereby improving the
wellbeing of families in Europe through research and policy.Wellbeing of Families in Future Europe – Challenges for Research
and Policy presents the results of the FAMILYPLATFORM project,
a social platform on research for families and family policy