The Social Trends Institute (STI) is an international research center dedicated to the analysis of globally significant social trends. STI focuses its research on four subject areas: Family; Bioethics; Culture and Lifestyles; and Corporate Governance. STI organizes Experts Meetings on specific topics within one of the research branches. These meetings are intended to foster open, intellectual dialogue between scholars from all over the world and from different academic backgrounds and disciplines. The scholars meet to present and discuss their original research papers in an academic forum. These papers, reviewed and edited in light of the conference discussion, form the basis of publications such as this one. STI’s sole aim is to promote research and scholarship of the highest academic standard. In doing so, it hopes to make a scholarly contribution towards understanding the varying and complex social trends that are intertwined with the modern world. STI is therefore committed to the ideas that make such scholarship possible: intellectual freedom, openness to a diversity of viewpoints and a shared commitment to serve humanity.
