The Portuguese Association for Regional Development brings together scientists that discuss the interactions of man with the territory or, in other words, the issues related to the development of people and places. The mobilizing themes evolve according to fashions and so it´s going talking about the location of public and private efforts, and the location and size of the companies and the interactions between them, migration, desertification of the peripheries and congestion of the centres. There are also sectoral issues with strong spatial reference that come to the floor like tourism, communications, infrastructure, environment, agriculture and transport. The discourse on recognizable entities such as SMEs, NGOs, IPSS, municipalities, stakeholders, state and multinationals is also important for the regional development. And do not forget the names of evolving terms such as human capital, cultural, social and institutional issues; economies of scale, agglomeration or context. All these concepts and models that connect them are important and help us to realize and understand regional development.

The strange thing is that we never speak explicitly on Family and Regional Development. There is some literature on economic development and family on the role of women in development and on social capital and development. Talking about other settings, family is sometimes referred to as an obstacle to development in Africa or as an intrinsic part in the development process in China.

However it seems to clearly avoid the term family and regional development even though it appears the family dimension in educational processes, in ownership regimes and in the spatial distribution of their budgets, on corporate sustainability, in dynamic migration, transport systems, networks of communication, the environment of housing and many other dimensions that influence the development of people and places.

In Gilles Duranton and Andres Rodriguez-Pose article (Economic Geography 85 (1) :23-47) 2009 say that while the literature recognizes the role of institutions in development there are less common studies on regional development and the the family. And although that article reaches some interesting correlations there is a great space to explore that challenges us.

This workshop aims, on the one hand, to introduce the family dimension in the analysis of regional development and, on the other hand, to include spatial reflections on family and development. There is definitely a starting point since much has been said about family and regional development. This meeting is a cross road for prospective cognitive models that integrate family and regional development, methods of observation that allow to test ideas and decision support tools that consider the dynamics and effectiveness of family capital.

ATAS/ Proceedings - 20th APDR WORKSHOP - Family an regional development