Forthcoming Experts Meeting

By HRF | 11/05/2025

Home and Engaged Fatherhood | Barcelona

At Home and Work: Engaged Fatherhood for Men, Families, and Gender Equality

29-30 June 2026 | IESE Business School, Universidad de Navarra, Barcelona, Spain

This Experts Meeting is organised by Home Renaissance Foundation (HRF) in partnership with Harvard University, the International Centre for Work and Family (ICWF-IESE), the International University of Catalonia and the Social Trends Institute, which also provides the funding for the project.

The following proposal builds on expertise garnered and research published on the significant social trend recognizing the societal as well as personal need for, and benefit from, engaged fatherhood.

There is increased public commentary and political interest not only on the life-long consequences of absent fathers to their children but also on the physical and mental health of the men concerned. More widely, the generational shift in expectations of how men live, work and contribute to family and society has rendered male roles less clearly defined, and men, often unintentionally, less engaged. In simplest terms, the perception that these roles are eroded and devalued requires a strong positive revaluing of men’s contribution to both the private and public sphere, for the mutual benefit of men and women.

Engaged fatherhood is a strong and positive model of how the role of men in family and home life retains crucial value within the current social context. Further, fatherhood is seen as enriched and enhanced by newer understandings of gender complementarity rather than diminished by them. Engaged fatherhood, or the lack of it, is experienced primarily in family relationships, which function in the context of home. For this reason the home should be understood as not just a beneficiary of engaged fatherhood but an essential contributor to its nurture and development.

In the depth and breadth of what follows, it is the positive evaluation of fatherhood and the centrality of the home context that offer relevant research bearings for Home Renaissance Foundation. As will be seen, the previous research and this proposed meeting take seriously the need for, and use of, multidisciplinary expertise.

This approach underpins the work of HRF over the last twenty years, and our previous fruitful collaborations with STI and ICWF-IESE.

Main questions to be addressed:

What are the positive characteristics of engaged fatherhood in the current social
context?

How can these be supported in domestic, familial, social and work-based instruments
and structures?

Is the Care of the Home an essential contributor to Fatherhood?

Academic Leaders

Marc Grau  | Assistant Professor of Social and Family Policies, Vicedean of the Faculty of Education Sciences, Researcher of the Joaquim Molins Figueras Childcare and Family Policies Chair and Director of the Institute for Advanced Family Studies at the Universitat Internacional de Catalunya

Dr Hannah Riley Bowles|  Roy E. Larsen Senior Lecturer in Public Policy and Management at the Harvard Kennedy School

Milton Kotelchuck | Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and Senior Scientist in the Maternal Child Health Center in the Center for Child and Adolescent Health Policy at Massachusetts General Hospital

Mireia Las Heras | Professor of Managing People in Organizations at IESE Business School, University of Navarra, Spain – where she is the Director of the International Center for Work and Family (ICWF)

Newsletter September 2025

By HRF | 09/25/2025

Dear friends,

As we leave summer behind, taking with us the memories treasured with our families, at Home Renaissance Foundation, we begin the final term with our Annual Board Meeting in London this October, where we will move forward with our forthcoming Experts Meetings:

  • EM 2026 ‘Home and Engaged Fatherhood’ in Barcelona. Bringing Engaged Fatherhood in from Margins for Men, Families and Gender Equity
  • EM 2028 ‘Home and Work’. A review of the anthropological dimension of work.

During these months of seemingly lower activity, we also presented at IESE Business School our forthcoming book, Nurturing Healthy Relationships at Home and Work, to be published with Springer. This took place within the framework of the XI International Conference of the International Centre for Work and Family. As soon as we have a publication date, we will let you know.

We have also recently received the good news that our book on Home and Climate Change—arising from the EM ‘Home/Family and Climate Change’ held in Nottingham, and which led us to present conclusions at the United Nations in May 2024—will be published by Routledge, becoming the fifth in our Home series with this prestigious publisher.

And finally, though by no means least, just before our summer break, we launched what we consider HRF’s most special project: the LEGACY PLAN. This opens a new door to all those who, through their estate or will, wish to support our research and ensure the well-being and positive impact of homes in society.

Next year we will celebrate our 20th anniversary, with seven academic publications already on the market, and we look forward to continuing for another twenty years exploring the immense impact of the home on society.

With all best wishes,
Sir Bryan K. Sanderson

Legacy Plan -Passing it on-

By HRF | 07/24/2025

New book on the horizon

By HRF | 07/09/2025

Last week, HRF participated in the 11th International Conference organised by the International Centre for Work and Family of IESE Business School. Prof. Maria José Bosch and Prof. Marc Grau-Grau presented our forthcoming book ‘Nurturing Healthy Relationships at Home and Work’ that will be published this autumn with Springer Publishing.

This publication is the fruit of the Experts Meeting that HRF celebrated last year in collaboration with ICWF and its director, Mireia Las Heras. It was nice to see again some of the book authors, such as Prof. Yasin Rofcanin, Secil Bayraktar, and Prof. Samuel Aryee.

The book intends to address two key questions:

·         How does the home play a distinctive positive role in equipping people for the relational demands and opportunities of working life?

·         How can these be harnessed and nurtured?

More details soon.

Newsletter June 2025

By HRF | 06/26/2025

Dear friends, 

It is hard to believe we are already halfway through 2025.

We began working in April on the challenges raised by directors at our AGM in Rome concerning the vision for future Expert meetings and identifying relevant field-leading academic contributors. More details will follow, but we are planning a joint project with our partners, the International Centre for Work and Family (ICWF) and Harvard, on Engaged Fatherhood, and another addressing the anthropological dimension of work.

To mark and celebrate International Family Day this May, we launched our collaboration with IFFD for its family training platform, PAUSE. This new section, on the impact of the home in personal development, features five of our directors. A  reminder that you can get a discounted subscription with the code HRF25.
June has been a month of relationship building. In May 2024, we learned about the work of the Institute for Family Policy Analysis at the United Nations, and a year later, we met in Mexico at the First National Forum for Family Well-being at Work. This meeting allowed us to learn about positive practices carried out by companies in Mexico and the great work that some local governments are doing to end current policies that are detrimental to employee well-being. 

Before flying back to Europe, our Head of Comms Angela de Miguel and Prof. Antonio Argandoña met with the president and some members of COPARMEX, the Mexican Chamber of Commerce, who, concerned about the situation, are seeking international expertise to help them analyse the country’s situation and this work on the well-being of employees and their families.

Furthermore, we are delighted to announce that our next book, “Nurturing Healthy Relationships at Home and Work”, will be presented at IESE in Barcelona. Although it is pre-publication, we couldn’t miss the opportunity to share it with those attending the 11th International Conference on Work and Family, organised by ICWF on 30 June and 1 July. We will share information and photos on the website and on social media soon.

Before I say goodbye, you may have noticed our Instagram profile has changed from Smart Home Management to Home Renaissance Foundation. Smart was a more practical project of HRF, but as we have developed the foundation’s academic activity, we have naturally shifted towards the parent project.

I hope you have a good summer ahead and can take the opportunity to rediscover the great impact that your home has on your lives.
 
With warm regards, 
 
Sir Bryan K. Sanderson, CBE 

HRF participates in the First Forum on Family Wellbeing at Work in Mexico

By HRF | 06/11/2025
A week ago, we celebrated the first National Forum on Family Well-being at Work in Mexico City. Home Renaissance Foundation (HRF) was invited by the Institute for Family Policy Analysis (IAPF) to participate as an international think tank.
The director of the IAPF, Juan Antonio López Baljarg, and the director of the Family Area, Alejandra Morales, welcomed us with an assessment of the employment situation in Mexico. The figures are worrying, which is why they are seeking to forge a strong alliance with businesses and local governments to improve the country’s professional environment. Some examples:

– In Mexico, three out of four people who work have experienced burnout in their lives.
– 58% of women who become mothers leave their jobs.

The IAPF asked itself: ‘What can we do to enable employees to give their best without neglecting or abandoning their personal and family lives?’ The answer is a call to action for society as a whole.

The head of innovation at the Salinas Group, Carlos Tato Palma, demonstrated that when you invest in your employees and develop family-friendly policies for them, the work environment is very different and employees feel a stronger connection to their company. He presented many different activities that are carried out in his group.

This was an example of Mexican best practice, which, as Professor Patricia Debeljuh explained, she has been collecting at the IAE of the Austral University since 2009 in her published Guides with Argentine companies.
Our representative at the Forum was Professor Antonio Argandoña, who sought to reinforce the importance of family education through ethics in the decisions we make every day. And how decisions are made ethically in the home or work environment. By carefully analysing the reasons that lead us to make them, with a good diagnosis of the situation and by studying the alternatives thoroughly. Without forgetting to evaluate the consequences of the decision over time.

In the afternoon, our Projects and Communication Manager, Ángela de Miguel, led a working group in which she presented the results of research carried out by HRF in collaboration with the International Centre for Work and Family at the IESE Business School, which shows that greater involvement in household tasks improves:

•    20% more job satisfaction
•    26% more commitment to work
•    and up to 18% more creativity and innovation at work

These findings and the determination of all concerned to make a difference to the experience of employment in Mexico made for a very positive collaboration and one which HRF is privileged to play its part in.

HRF in PAUSE by IFFD

By HRF | 05/22/2025

Home offers a chance to pause. A few weeks ago, in this attempt to define and find different approaches to home, we rediscovered the concept of pause. Home is also a pause. When you walk through the door of your home, you stop, slow down, and leave the noise behind to open up to your more personal, more intimate reality.

The International Federation for Family Development (IFFD) is an independent, non-profit organisation that supports families through training. A few months ago, it launched a subscription platform, PAUSE, to offer educational content from experts to parents. For example, in the field of psychology and psychiatry, you can find Isabel Rojas Estapé, Marc Masip, or María Inés López-Ibor.

Now, there is also a content module on the impact of the home on the development of the person and the experts are five of our Home Renaissance Foundation directors.

  • Prof. Sophia Aguirre is president of Catholic International University, USA, an economist, and she was an advisor on family issues to the American government.
  • Prof. Rosa Lastra, Professor at Queen Mary University, UK
  • Prof. Gamal Abdelmonem,  Chair of Architecture and Founding Director of Research at York School of Architecture at the University of York, UK
  • Prof. Marta Bertolaso, Professor of Philosophy of Science and Human Development at the University Campus Bio-Medico of Rome, Italy
  • Prof. Julia Prats, Professor and head of the department of Entrepreneurship at IESE Business School, Spain

We launched the collaboration in networks last week on the occasion of the International Day of Families and now we leave here a code HRF25 to apply a 25% discount if you want to subscribe to the Pause platform.

Happy homes are not the result of chance; they require a good root that brings stability and constant training.

Launch of the Migration Book in Colombia

By HRF | 05/21/2025

🎥 Video | Presentation of the Book The Search for Home among Forced Migrants and Refugees

A few weeks ago, the Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá invited us to present Home Renaissance Foundation’s latest book, ‘The Search for Home among Forced Migrants and Refugees.’ The book explores how forcibly displaced people (migrants, refugees, asylum seekers) attempt to reconstruct a sense of “home.” It examines the emotional, social, cultural, and political dimensions of home in the context of forced displacement.

Víctor M. Mijares, Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science and Global Studies at Universidad de los Andes, moderated the event and introduced the three speakers:

  • Prof. Antonio Argandoña, HRF director and Emeritus Professor at IESE Business School. He is the book’s editor too.
  • Prof. Magaly Sánchez, Senior Researcher and Scholar at the Office of Population Research at Princeton University. She is a contributing chapter author.
  • Prof. Allison B. Wolf, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia.

Some main ideas:

  • The need to decenter traditional notions of home linked to territory, nationality, or ownership.
  • The book’s interdisciplinary approach (anthropology, sociology, migration studies).
  • The book’s relevance in light of the current global migration crises.
  • “Home” as a social construct, not merely a physical place.
  • The impact of displacement on identity, belonging, and dignity.
  • Personal stories of migrants and how they redefine or rebuild homes in exile.
  • Bureaucratic, cultural, or emotional barriers in the process. Emphatising migrant resilience.
  • The role of migration policies in facilitating or hindering the reconstruction of home.

Home, an emotional anchor in adolescence

By HRF | 04/10/2025

Newsletter March 2025

By HRF | 03/27/2025

Dear friends,

I trust you have had a good start to 2025. At HRF, the publication of our fifth book, The Search for Home among Forced Migrants and Refugees, has seen us travel the world. We have held launches in Rome (Istituto Luigi Sturzo), Madrid (Universidad Complutense de Madrid), and Bogotá (Universidad de los Andes), with more events planned for later this year. The relevance of this topic is very clear, but so increasingly is the value of our approach: recognising the dignity of the person and central role of the home in this.

While in Rome, we attended ‘Perspectives on altruism: empathy, compassion, care’  on 6-8 March, organised by the University of Santa Croce. As partners in this conference, HRF organised a workshop on ‘The ‘home factor’ between caring for oneself, others, and the environment’ moderated by HRF Director Prof. Julia Prats, with presentations by fellow directors Profs Gamal Abdelmonem and Rosa Lastra. You can read more details and find the abstracts by clicking here. 

We are delighted to let you know of our recent work with the International Federation for Family Development (IFFD), contributing new content for their PAUSE channel, a content platform designed to become the world’s largest hub for family, education, and personal growth. If you are a subscriber to IFFD, you will see several of our directors talking about the home’s impact on the individual’s development from very different perspectives. We shall let you know the release date in due course.

In February, our communications manager, Angela de Miguel, was invited to open a program for parents in Madrid called ‘I have a house, I want a Home’. She was in charge of the first session, ‘Building a Home, a Family Project’. Her key message was “the home does not build itself and requires management and planning, especially when the home is just starting. Later, this management becomes a habit and becomes more natural and assumed by all members of the household. This creates extraordinary bonds of affection and a sense of belonging due to which the children acquire tools and skills appropriate to their age.”

Looking forward to 2025, we have the happy task of preparing to celebrate twenty years of HRF by 2026. We shall update you on our plans for this significant milestone and anniversary in the months ahead.

I would like to end with a personal thank you for your many kind messages of congratulation following the announcement of my knighthood in the New Year Honours List.

Best regards,

Sir Bryan K. Sanderson CBE