Abstract
This study focuses on a family as a subjectively constructed social category. The main aim is to explore how people nowadays distinguish who is a member of their family and who is just a relative.
Authors use a qualitative methodology analyzing five focus groups held in Czech Republic. On the grounds of the discussions authors define a typology of family layers based on the processes of including or excluding a person to the near family.
Also the factors influencing the decision to view someone as a family member or just as a relative are described. Overall, the discussions revealed that despite of a huge variability of family settings in the population there are some shared conceptions of what creates family and who should be a part of it.
Therefore authors summarize that family as a group does not lose its form even in today's individualized and unstable society. It only allows individuals to create their own sense of family based on the shared family pattern and their own rationalized choice.