The practice of holding a small well-focused international conference over three days every 3-4 years in Edinburgh started in 2004. The model enabled CRFR to ensure quality and resulted in very high levels of satisfaction from participants. It was disrupted by the COVID19 pandemic which resulted in the cancellation of the June 2020 conference.  

The theme of the first CRFR international conference in 2004 was Work-Life Balance Across the Lifecourse attended by 150 delegates from 13 countries, most of whom presented papers in a programme of parallel sessions. Kathryn Backett-Milburn and Sarah Cunningham Burley, founding co-directors, began the conference with the talk ‘work-life balance in low-income families.’  On day two, the key note speaker, Australia’s Raewyn Connell, spoke of ‘Gender, structure and social justice: the practices and politics of work/life balance’. On the closing day, the internationally renowned British academic, Rosemary Crompton gave an address ‘Women’s Employment and Work-Life Balance in Britain and Europe’. The leading British family sociologist, David Morgan acted as discussant throughout and helped us make closing remarks.

The 2007 conference had the theme of Extended and Extending Families had a similarly full programme. The opening by founding co-director Lynn Jamieson was on ‘Intimacy, extended and extending family ties’  Keynote addresses were given by Karen Hansen of Brandis University, ‘Not-so-Nuclear Families: Class Gender and Networks of Care’ and by David de Vaus of La Trobe University ‘Family Diversity and Extended Families’ ending with a panel discussion chaired by Sarah Cunningham-Burley.

In the 2010 Conference Changing Families in a Changing World the key note session bringing together Associate Professor Kit Wa Anita Chan, Department of Social Science, The Hong Kong Institute of Education and Professor Stevi Jackson Centre for Women’s Studies, York University sought to reinvigorate theorising the intersection of gender relationships and family life in a changing world by looking across majority and minority worlds. A second key note session bringing together Professor Irene Rizzini, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro and Professor Barrie Thorne University of California at Berkeley and Esther Lupafya, Malawi brought lessons from majority and minority worlds concerning the conditions in which the family life and personal relationships of children in economic adversities protect them and enable their resilience and creativity and effectively work against harm and shame. Transnational families often negotiate and manage the gulf between majority and minority worlds. In a third keynote the leading scholar of transnational families Loretta Baldassar, Director Monash University Centre in Prato, Italy gave an address to the conference.

The 2013 conference abstract booklet shows the range under the theme Researching Families and Relationships: Innovations in Methods Theory and Policy Relevance .The programme included four keynote sessions. First Mwananchi Ghana spoke to ‘Listening to the voices of children’ along with Glowen Kyei-Mensah. Head of Advocacy and Communications Unit at Participatory Development Associates.  Day two began with Rachel Parrenas of the University of Southern California of researching ‘Gendered Intimacies in Transnational Family Life’ and ended with Jo Boyden, Director of the Young Lives project, Oxford University, addressed the question ‘What does international comparative longitudinal research contribute to researching, understanding and changing childhood poverty in developing countries? On the final day Jennifer Mason, of the Morgan Centre in Manchester spoke of ‘Sensations, Atmospheres and Resemblances: tuning in differently to families and relationships.’

The 2016 conference theme was Unequal Families and Relationships. The opening plenary was given by Kathleen Gerson of New York University who spoke of ‘Intimate commitment in the new economy: How rising uncertainties in jobs and relationships are reshaping strategies for work and care’ A second plenary involved two contributions: from Peter Moss, University of London ‘Early childhood education: profitable investment or democratic potential’ and Julia Brannen, University College London, ‘Inequality and intergenerational family relationships: methodological and theoretical issues’. A third plenay was given by Kyung-Sup Chang, Seoul National University, South  Korea on ‘(Multi)culturalizing Inequalities: Citizenship Contradictions of Marriage Transnationalization in South Korea/East Asia’.  The final plenary was given by David Morgan on ‘Intimate and Family Practices and Social Inequalities’ and Lynn Jamieson on Intimate and Family practices: generational justice, environmental justice and global inequalities” In  addition to the streamed research contributions of participants, skill-taster sessions were added to further enhance learning experiences.

The next conference was planned for 2020 and Intersectionality, Families and Relationships was all ready to go. All the work was done, the flight of our opening keynote speaker, Patricia Hill Collins was booked and participants signed up. But June 2020 turned out to be an impossible year and everything was cancelled. Soundings were taken about holding the conference virtually but Patricia was one of a number of people who made it clear that online was not the same and not for them.