[The household and the small family, a methodological illusion of statistics and survey demography]

Abstract

The authors question the use of the concept of "households" in demographic analyses of the family. "Designed with reference to the Western family, is the concept still operational in radically different contexts, and in particular where extended families are dominant? The authors reply that it might be as long as it is handled with caution, knowledge of its limits and only as a practical collection concept. Wanting to force it to coincide with a social reality leads to methodological illusion." (SUMMARY IN ENG)