%0 Journal Article
%T Handle with Care:  The Fiddly Concept of ˇ°Transitionalˇ± When Partitioning Europe in Regional Family Systems
%A Giuseppe A. Micheli
%J Journal of Family History
%@ 1552-5473
%D 2018
%R 10.1177/0363199018760471
%X While exploring the map of European family models, this essay aims to appraise the robustness of the category of ˇ°transitional zone,ˇ± that is, the intermediary area between Eastern and Western Europe, reinterpreting it as a typology of regions with a common transition period from monolithic complex forms to multifaceted societies, where the ˇ°simpleˇ±/ˇ°stemˇ± family gradually prevails. While an intermediate value in a scale does not elucidate anything new, an ˇ°intermediateˇ± type in a typology approach is endowed with its own semantic space. The author pinpoints some critical issues in a ˇ°gradient-dependentˇ± approach. Gradients are not typologies, and reasoning by gradients generates unanticipated effects. Typologies of family patterns can be inserted into three-dimensional space, and a meta-analysis of narration can add precious value. Last but not least, a map of European family systems must have historical depth. As a consequence, the author draws two time-lagged fault lines and two corresponding ˇ°transitional zonesˇ± in between. From this standpoint, the idea of transition should be viewed within the historical period of change from ˇ°jointˇ± to ˇ°simpleˇ± family systems, in the broad sense of the terms
%K family systems
%K gradients versus typologies
%K transitional zone
%K meta-narration
%K historical depth
%K cultural innerness
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0363199018760471