Giovanna Rossi is Full Professor of the Sociology of the Family at the Faculty of Psychology of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Milan. She has engaged in broad and documented scholarly activity in the field of the sociology of the family, with special reference to the study of the principal social and cultural transformations, the social policies, and the sociology of the third sector. She is the author or co-author of many volumes and over a hundred and thirty articles published in national and international reviews.