From Imposed Ties to Chosen Ties: Transformations of Intimate Relationships within the Family

This study examines transformations in contemporary family ties by analyzing the shift from socially imposed bonds to emotionally chosen relationships. It seeks to question the capacity of the sociology of intimacy to account for these changes without reducing family relations to a narrow logic of individual freedom and self-choice. The study is grounded in the assumption that recent transformations affecting the family do not signify a complete emancipation from social constraints, but rather reflect a reorganization of ties and obligations within private life. Adopting a critical theoretical approach, the analysis deconstructs sociological perspectives on individualization, intimate relationships, and family change, while reassessing them through frameworks that foreground power relations, social and gender inequalities, and the symbolic market of emotions. This approach makes it possible to move beyond purely descriptive accounts of family transformation toward an analysis of its internal social logic.The findings demonstrate that contemporary intimacy does not eliminate power relations within the family, but instead contributes to their reconfiguration through a logic of choice and negotiation. The study also shows that the family has become a fragile space in which relationships are managed through implicit and revisable contractual arrangements, where emotional fulfillment becomes a condition for continuity and freedom turns into an individual burden. It concludes that intimacy constitutes a central site for the reproduction of social and gender inequalities, thereby calling for the development of a critical sociology of intimacy that moves beyond the traditional dichotomy between liberation and regulation.