- Covers a broad range of topics, including social inequality, parenting practices, children's work, changing patterns of citizenship, multi-cultural families, and changes in welfare state protection for families
- Includes many European, North American and Asian examples written by a team of experts from across five continents
- Features coverage of previously neglected groups, including immigrant and transnational families as well as families of gays and lesbians
- Demonstrates how studying social change in families is fundamental for understanding the transformations in individual and social life across the globe
- Extensively reworked from the original Companion published over a decade ago: three-quarters of the material is completely new, and the remainder has been comprehensively updated