Family Inclusiveness and Spatial Dispersion: The Spatial Consequences of Having Large and Diversified Family Configurations

This article stresses the critical role of family inclusiveness for shaping the
spatiality of families. Some individuals have a rather exclusive definition of
their family, focusing on partner, children, siblings and parents. Others develop
inclusive definitions of family by considering extended kin, step relatives
and friends as significant family members. Family inclusiveness is hypothesized
to account for a large share of the dispersion of family members
throughout space. Data consisted of a stratified sample of 300 mothers of
school-aged children living in the cosmopolitan city of Geneva. The results
show that spatial dispersion of families increases with the number of family
members considered significant. Inclusion of family members beyond the nuclear
family of origin is paradoxically associated with a localised family context.
Overall, this study emphasises the importance of family inclusiveness as a
key dimension for understanding family spatiality in globalized societies.