The volume presents results of an international research project on the topic of close relationships and their implications at a community level.
The project draws from a cooperation between the Lombardy Region and the Postgraduate School of Psychology "A. Gemelli", Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Milan. In particular such project was meant to promote the exchange and scientific dialogue between European and North American "junior" and "senior" researchers and clinical or psychosocial researchers from the Catholic University.
The volume is divided into different parts, each devoted to one of the following themes: "Community and family"; "Civic engagement"; "Exchange between genders and generations".
Among the authors there are internationally well known clinical and social psychologists. The contributions are in English, Spanish and French but they are also provided with comprehensive summaries in Italian.

Vittorio Cigoli is Professor of clinical psychology of couple and family relationships at the Faculty of Psychology of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Milan as well as Director of the Postgraduate School of Psychology "A. Gemelli". Author of several volumes and over two hundred publications, he is the scientific responsible of the internationalization project ASAG- Lombardy Region.
Marialuisa Gennari is Researcher in clinical psychology at the Faculty of Psychology of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart (Brescia branch) as well as coordinator of the high quality training activities of the Postgraduate School. Among her research interests are multicultural integration, family mediation, couple pathology and psychogerontology.