Family life is constantly being scrutinised, but debates seem to sidestep the question of what ‘family’ really means. The Open University's Megan Doolittle joins four leading academics from the field of sociology to tackle the issues head on. They look at how families communicate and behave, and they talk about family personal life and what is meant by the term 'intimacy'. Finally they discuss the future of family studies. The Open University course DD101 Introducing the social sciences, features similar material to this collection.