The family as the vital hub of society was the focus of an event organised by the Home Renaissance Foundation and The Family Watch at the European Parliament in Madrid on Thursday, November 8.

“Life begins in the home and the family takes first priority for the Government of Madrid,” Mr Alberto San Juan Director-General of Family and Child, told the meeting to discuss the state of the home in Spain and the rest of Europe and launch HRF’s latest book entitled ‘The Home: Multidisciplinary Reflections.’

The rising number of children diagnosed with mental illness, the instability caused by divorce, problems of adolescents being left alone while their parents are at work and the need for redistribution of tasks within the home to lessen a mother’s burden are urgency issues to address.

Mr San Juan explained that the real major concern is the low birth rate, both in Spain and throughout Europe and the reason why the Government of Madrid has invested 2,700 million euros in policies to help provide for the basic requirements of families and increase the birth rate.

Neuropsychiatrist Rafaela Santos warned of the difficulty of differentiating between wellbeing and happiness. She said that while the State can supply services that give families stability, it’s impossible for the State to make people happy.

President of The Family Watch, Javier Fernandez del Moral, highlighted the necessity of making the most of new technologies for optimum interaction and communication within the family.  He also spoke of safeguarding the family both from the public sphere and from within as the values transmitted through the home in future generations are what will keep society alive. He emphasised the need for the family to be appreciated for what it is  – a nucleus of fundamental coexistence for the human being to develop fully and with dignity.

Launch in Madrid

On Thursday, November 8 Home Renaissance Foundation launched its latest book ‘The Home: Multidisciplinary Reflections’ edited by Professor Emeritus Antonio Argandoña, who opened the event at the European Parliament Offices in Madrid at 6pm.

This was followed by a round table moderated by Prof. Marta Elvira of Strategic Management and People in Organziations at IESE Business School, debating whether the home is in crisis, the best way to build a well-run home and how children and other members of the family are affected by emotional instability within a home.

The round table discussions were led by:

– Rafaela Santos, Neuropsychiatrist and President of the Spanish Resilience Institute

– Alberto San Juan, Director of the Family and the Child, Government of the Community of Madrid

– Javier Fernández del Moral, Professor of Journalism and Chairman of The Family Watch

Thursday, November 8, 2018, at 6:00 p.m.

Oficina del Parlamento Europeo | Paseo de la Castellana 46, Madrid

On Wednesday, October 10 at 7 pm at the IESE Business School in Barcelona, Home Renaissance Foundation launched its latest book ‘The Home: Multidisciplinary Reflections’ edited by Professor Emeritus Antonio Argandoña, who opened the event with a presentation entitled: ‘Home is also a company.’

This was followed by a round table moderated by the Research Director of the International Centre for Work and Family, Professor Mireia Las Heras, which debated if the home can be managed as a company and if the work that the home requires can or must be considered a profession.

This round table was made up of:

– Remei Agulles, Professor at the International University of Catalonia

– Rosa Pich, influencer, Youtuber and mother

– Javier Vidal-Quadras, lawyer and member of the International Foundation for Family Development

Here you are some of the reflections that they made:

Remei Agulles: “Today’s postmodern society means that when we start making a home, there are no fixed patterns. Before, people learnt by being there, but these days that doesn’t happen so we need professionals to “train” us and not just tell us how it should be done.”

Rosa Pich: “Something that has to be clear from the start in any home is that there are rules and boundaries – just like at school, marriages or university. Loving people includes making demands on them, saying no, and each family member needs to learn that.”

Javier Vidal Quadras: “Nobody gets married in order to split up afterwards, and nobody has children in order to make them unhappy, but it happens. Why? Ask yourself that question. Training and education are two good allies.”

Wednesday, October 10, 2018, at 7:00 p.m.

IESE Business School. Arnús i Garí Street, 3. 08034 Barcelona

Press Contact: 
Ángela de Miguel
Email: angela@homerenaissancefoundation.org
Telephone: + 44 (0) 7492196196

Are new technologies changing our homes, our lives, our relationships?

Homes are being invaded by new technologies, for good and for bad, technology is shaping various bodily dimensions and functional capacities of people and changing their expectations with respect to the domestic environment as well.

Over the coming years, we will continue to witness a technological “revolution”. We wish to determine how the increasing presence of new technologies in the home impacts its pivotal roles in human development and in the creation of a balanced and humane society.

We will get the response of all these questions in our third Experts Meeting which will be held on February 25 & 26, 2019 at the Royal Society of Medicine.

Among the participants, we would like to highlight the presence of Professor Margaret Archer from the University of Warwick, Professor Luisa Damiano from the University of Messina, Mei Ling-Fung, who is Vice Chair for Internet Inclusion at the IEEE, and Francisca Toni, Professor in Computational Logic at Imperial College.

In previous years, social sciences, neurosciences, economics and philosophy have been exploring the topics of individual constitution and development dynamics, focusing on organisms’ cognition, action, subjectivity, inter-subjectivity and their relationship with the environment. But these days engineering and bio-engineering also play an increasingly relevant role in such an evaluation.

A new epistemological approach must be developed that might include disciplines ranging from sociology, to economics and law, from philosophy and anthropology to engineering and architecture, which might be able to develop and account for new models of care.

On Wednesday, October 10 at 7 pm at the IESE Business School in Barcelona, Home Renaissance Foundation will launch its latest book ‘The Home: Multidisciplinary Reflections’ edited by Professor Emeritus Antonio Argandoña, who will open the event with a presentation entitled: ‘Home is also a company.’

This will be followed by a round table moderated by the Research Director of the International Centre for Work and Family, Professor Mireia Las Heras, which will debate if the home can be managed as a company and if the work that the home requires can or must be considered a profession.

This round table will be made up of:

– Remei Agulles, Professor at the International University of Catalonia

– Rosa Pich, influencer, Youtuber and mother

– Javier Vidal-Quadras, lawyer and member of the International Foundation for Family Development

The event will be in Spanish and confirmation of attendance is required. Please, register here.

Wednesday, October 10, 2018, at 7:00 p.m.

IESE Business School. Arnús i Garí Street, 3. 08034 Barcelona