While diverse family forms and systems have long been in existence in various parts of Asia, recent forces of globalization, urbanization, increased migration, and changes in demographic trends have significantly altered them.  At the policy level, various measures have been put forth by the state aimed at regulating marriage and fertility, and providing various forms of assistance for care of the poor, elderly and children.  These measures have been in place to uphold and help families, with the political and social belief that the family is the basic economic, social and emotional unit of society and social cohesion. 

Amidst various macro-level structural changes and state-level government policies aimed at maintaining the family, it is important to understand and acknowledge the micro-level processes and patterns of family change that are occurring in response to the documented and better understood larger trends. We know very little of how families and individual members within families are responding to and coping with these changes.  An aspect that needs greater attention in the literature is the recognition of alternative forms of living familial lives that have emerged in Asia, such as cohabitation among unmarried couples, shared living arrangements among migrant singles, and same-sex unions. Families themselves are continually evolving and constantly re-working their own definition, status and importance in society.

Given this context, this conference aims to explore the resilience and transformation of families in Asia as well as to understand how families are attempting to hold together, whether successfully or unsuccessfully, in the midst of change and often adversity.  Its goal is to bring together current work that is being done acknowledging the emergence of new family structures, alternate living arrangements, new family support systems and specific strategies that have been implemented by individuals within their families - however constituted or being reconstituted - to cope with the pressures of their societies and with their own expectations. 

Themes considered in the panels are:
1. Intergenerational relationships and elderly care
2. Migration and the emergence of new family forms
3. Changes in family structure and living arrangements
4. Changing meanings and forms of parenthood
5. Balancing of work and family life
6. Emerging meanings and new forms of “family”