Family Relationships and Practices of Wealth Reproduction

Advancing family research by focusing on the connection between family and wealth, my contribution examines how family relationships and practices of wealth reproduction shape and reinforce one another in super-rich families. Based on in-depth interviews with members of super-rich German families (with net wealth over 100 million Euros), this talk investigates questions of belonging and boundary-making, representation and deviance, control and power, destruction and reconciliation in these families. I argue that through the close connection between family and wealth, these families persisted as units of economic production throughout different phases of capitalism, adapting not only their modes of economic, social, and legal reproduction, but also developing new modes of emotional interaction. Thus, the paper unravels the emotional and affective dimensions that underpin processes of wealth reproduction. I want to contribute to a better understanding of family wealth reproduction in the 21^stcentury by illuminating the intricate interplay between affective ties and economic practices within the family life of the super-rich. My talk concludes that future directions for family research should take into account the entanglements of family and economy, emotionality and rationality, which constitute class-specific forms of relatedness within families.