Family Be Defined in Such

¶ … Family be Defined in Such a Way as to be Globally Relevant?

The idea of a family, being in a family, or having a family is no stranger to anyone anywhere in the globe because as social beings, each of us began our lives within the confines of a group known as the "family." Of course when the term family comes into focus, the very first notion of which is a group of people related by blood comprising of a father, mother and one or more children. This is the basic definition of a family and since time immemorial; the family has been viewed as the basic unit of society providing the needs of members and learning from within before moving into the other social groups of the larger society. Although there is the basic definition of a family (i.e. father, mother, children), the meaning has been further extended wherein the composition of which include people who are related by blood, marriage, and/or adoption. This gives rise to two types of family: the nuclear and the extended, where the latter comprises of the parents and the children while the former includes other relatives living in the same roof. As already stated, "families play a central role in societies as they are the primary site for reproduction, in socializing the next generation, in early education, and in stabilizing adult personality formation (Trask 2011)." However, like in other times in history, the social, cultural, economic, political climates and other factors contributes to changes in the family. During the last several decades, the onset of globalization proved yet another determining factor in how families stand in a changing world. Consequently, it is important to understand the affects of what is happening now and how the family relates to the changes and challenges of the times.

There are varied definitions of globalization from the economic, political, to the information and communications perspective as well as other factors. Carrington (2001) defined globalization as increasing the ways in which individuals and groups understand their world are in global terms. No longer are we confined to localized and space-bound communities and identities. Applying this in the context of the family today, globalization added a new dimension to what the family is in a way that the confines of the family or any family for that matter, is not relegated anymore to their immediate society or geographic boundary but on a global scale as well. Whereas, families before are likely to be in the same geographic location, the changing face of the world especially with globalization saw families living separately in different parts of the globe. An example would be a father working abroad in order to support a family back home. There are also families nowadays wherein the children had to leave home for another country in order to get a better education or work at better jobs. Globalization has therefore transformed not just the role of nation-states, but also of families' abilities to maintain and protect their members. Families are compelled to be more self-reliant in an environment where they may have fewer options available to them. (Trask 2011)

In spite of the changes brought about by globalization on the family, one thing is clear though that this basic unit of the society remain intact albeit sometimes the members thereto are in disparate locations in the world. There is still that strong "familial" bond and kinship that distance and time could never break and at the end of it all, it is always the family that a person will go back to and identify with because the family is the foundation of that person. Circumstances may have changed the way families live together but the bond will never be severed. For members of the family needing to be away from their loved ones to seek economic progress, they have the knowledge and understanding that their family will always be there for them. In the same manner though, those leaving their families for other places will need to understand the culture and the society to where they are going to be able to assimilate or adapt to the new environment. Thus, as the individual leaving his or her family meets the challenges and changes of the new environment. "it is important to recognize, understand, and be responsive to cultural differences between and among cultural groups. These frameworks impact the way individuals and families define and evaluate their relationships. (Falk 2011)" In addition, this will enable the person to adapt to the new culture and society that may be different from the family or society the individual came from or belong to.