Book excerpt: Understanding what 'family' means - and how best to support families - depends on challenging politicised assumptions that frame 'ordinary' families in comparison to an imagined problematic 'other'. Learning from the perspectives of people who were in care in childhood, this innovative book helps redefine the concept of family. Linking two longitudinal studies involving young adults in England, it reveals important new insights into the diverse and dynamic complexity of family lives, identities and practices in time - through childhood and beyond. Paving the way for future policy and practice, this book makes an important contribution to the theorisation of family in the 21st century.