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French to English translations [PRO] Social Sciences - Social Science, Sociology, Ethics, etc. / Demography
French term or phrase:famille d'élection
In demography in French, this seems to be a relatively common phrase: it is used to refer to the family that someone forms when they leave their family of origin (parents, etc.) and forms a new one with a partner (getting married, having children, etc.). "Chosen family" in English seems to refer mainly to bonds that don't meet older/traditional criteria for "family" but that play an equivalent role in someone's life. I'm not finding any trace of "elective family".
In the various extracts you have given , then you may also consider using variations upon a them : chosen family, family of choice, family you have founded, whatever. I reckon you might not have to use the same term each time.
"Election" in "famille d'élection" focuses on the move made by the individual (the agent of the move is central to the topic) -- the choice of the individual to start a family in parting from the family he/she was born to. "Famille mononucléaire" is a sociological concept not referring to changes occurring in an individual's history but used for describing and managing sociological and sociometric data.
Thanks for this suggestion. There do seem at most to be a very small proportion of instances of this phrase that are used in this way. Nattiez in "Le gynécée franquiste" (Dialogue, 2010) seems to have used it in this way ("Le schéma préétabli vise à faire passer les femmes de leur « famille d'origine » à leur « famille d'élection » (Singly, 1993)"). But the fact that the overwhelmingly predominant use does seem to be similar to that of "chosen family" in English makes me think that this could in fact be an appropriate way to do this—or else simply shifting to a term that more conventionally refers to the kind of family they're talking about. I'll see what the authors themselves have to say about it.
Are you sure the author of the original text is not using 'famille d'élection' incorrectly? Google results show no occurrences of it with that meaning. The normal term would be 'famille nucléaire'.
Sociologists prefer to create nouns, which are then taken up by other (friendly) sociologists with copious references. Backs are then mutually scratched and the lucky ones end up with chairs.
Demographics (studies centered around the development of societies and related changes) focus on "households"; whilst for personal well-being and individual histories, "family" appears to be the most frequent term -- a question of perspective as much as terminology I suppose. "Famille d'élection" refers to the individual's initiative to create a family rather than "joining in" an existing one, hence my suggestion to use "created/founded", but you might possibly use the form "newly-created/integrated family".
for whom ? the individual, the society ? If for society then, "household" would be the term and "famille d'élection" could become "newly-created household"; for the individual : "newly-founded family" may be better.
"C'est la construction de la famille d'élection qui domine les périodes positives :" - there you have the beginning of the sentence (what precedes the extract in the first discussion entry).
Otherwise, thanks for the suggestion. With all due respect, though, I wouldn't call that "obvious," given that "family of origin" and "chosen family"/"family of choice" both exist in similar academic contexts in English (albeit the latter with a different meaning). The verbal version you suggest is highly informal—the text is an article for a demography/population studies journal.
in the original language because this seems to be an obvious case of where the French use a noun and the English would make it into a verbal form, for example, the family that you are born into as opposed to the family you create for yourself
As far as I can tell, "chosen family" and "family of choice" are usually used to refer to close friends who are considered/treated as family because of their importance in someone's life. The phrase "famille d'élection" is explicitly being used to refer here to the family that someone creates by forming a couple with a sexual/emotional partner and possibly having children with them. So in the sources I can find (including my original text), they don't seem to mean the same thing.
You appear to know that 'chosen family' and 'famille d'élection' mean pretty much the same thing, so I don't see what the problem is! Are you simply looking for corroboration? And what do you mean by 'older/traditional criteria for "family"'? I.e., in what way do your 2 terms differ?
No restriction on the number of members, and "household" (ménage) would apply both to the family of origin (with parents and siblings) and the "famille d'élection"...
The original summarizes the "famille d'élection" in the following way: "la rencontre d'un partenaire, la mise en couple et/ou le mariage et la naissance des enfants."
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Answers
6 mins confidence: peer agreement (net): +2
chosen family or family of affinity
Explanation: but in politics it referes to the groups of affinity
Affinity (sociology) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affinity_(sociology)Traduire cette page Affinity (sociology) ... Types. Family · Kinship ... Affinity in terms of sociology, refers to "kinship of spirit", interest and other interpersonal commonalities. Affinity is ...
Drmanu49 France Local time: 21:49 Works in field Native speaker of: English, French PRO pts in category: 8
Notes to answerer
Asker: Thanks very much! Again though, in this case we're talking about the family that a person forms specifically by going out and pair-bonding (forming a couple), getting married, and having kids. That's quite explicit in the original, I'll add a bit of text to clarify.
peer agreement (net): +2
