Resilient “Complex Living Arrangements” to Better Face Economic Hardship?

The model of nuclear family coresidence has become the normative standard of modern westernized societies, whereas living in complex households, where extended families cohabit, is assumed to represent a traditional, rural living arrangement. This presentation advocates that in local contexts of rapid economic transformation, accelerated urbanization and scarcity of public welfare, families develop “survival strategies” (Gerstel, 2011) to better accommodate the changes.

Based on the case of French Polynesia, where 4 out of 10 people live in “complex households” we deconstruct this census category drawing from the 2017 census microdata. In this archipelagic territory, which consists of 74 inhabited islands (among 118) spread across an area as vast as Europe, access to resources, the pursuit of exogamy, and, more recently, access to public services (such as health care and education) and employment opportunities face families with huge challenges.

We demonstrate that the overrepresentation of complex households corresponds to family organizations well suited to navigate the challenges of a modernized society. Rather than suggesting that Polynesia is still at an earlier phase of development or that this traditional living is an inherent cultural trait, the prevalence of complex households living arrangements is key to the resilience of family organization on the territory (Sierra-Paycha et al., 2022, Fardeau et Lelièvre, 2023)

Educational access, health care facilities, and job prospects are heavily concentrated in the Papeete metropolitan region, which is also grappling with a particularly tight housing market. Family members circulate among kins from the archipelagos to the centre. Within this context, they often have no choice but to share housing and resources, organize care collectively etc. In this presentation we demonstrate how these various forms of family organization facilitate better access to resources, particularly in response to ongoing socio-economic crises.