Family issues are combining diversified factors, viewpoints, directions of analysis. As such they reflect different levels of social structure, functioning, and related professional activities. In the first place it means micro-social reality but also other components influencing our understanding of family life, including macro-social ones. On the other hand we should look at family through the prism of particular disciplines - and in this paper both social work and social policy are starting points. They are treated as exceptionally important tools of family research and practice.