Each of the chapters in this volume offers important insights into the family as a mediating structure of globalization. In their work on father presence in South Africa, Townsend, Madhavan and Garey describe the changing role of fathers in relation to the South African labor market and its emerging position in the global economy. And in a study of refugee families in Sierra Leone, Andrews notes the critical role played by children in how families cope with the dislocations of war and conflict. Children serve as cultural nodes for these families, serving to maintain a sense of cultural continuity and tradition for them. The theme of cultural transmission also runs through the paper by Srinivas on packaged food consumption among middle-class Indian families in Bangalore, India and in Boston, United States. She describes how food consumption in these families is grounded in a larger project of asserting and maintaining authentic "Indian-ness" in the face of the cultural challenges of globalization. The chapters in this volume, while certainly distinct in focus, all affirm the value and importance of a renewed focus on family in globalization studies.
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