Family, kinship and welfare provision in Europe, past and present: Commonalities and divergences

Continuity and Change

Volumn 25, Issue 1, 2010, Pages 137-159

  Viazzo, Pier Paolo ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF TURIN   (Italy)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

FAMILY STRUCTURE; KINSHIP; MODERNIZATION; SOCIAL SECURITY; WELFARE PROVISION;

SCANDINAVIA;

EID: 77953623225     PISSN: 02684160     EISSN: 1469218X     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0268416010000020     Document Type: Article

References (92)

1. 'Kinship: historical and contemporary frontiers', Workshop at the European University Institute (EUI), Fiesole/Florence. The organizers were Giulia Calvi (historian), Martin Kohli (sociologist) and Sigrid Weigel (literary critic). The document is available at http://www.iue.it/SPS/Research/SPS- AY0708-Workshops-F07.html.
2. A clear account of the resurgence in kinship studies witnessed over the past two decades is provided in J. Carsten, After kinship (Cambridge, 2004), 1-30.
3. See also M. Segalen, 'Kinship ties in European families', in D. I. Kertzer and M. Barbagli eds., The history of the European family, vol.3 (New Haven, 2003), 350-376
4. C. Bonvalet, 'La famille-entourage locale', Population 58 (2003), 10 (my translation).
5. C. Bonvalet, 'La famille-entourage locale', Population 58 (2003), 10 Ibid.
6. R. Wall, J. Robin and P. Laslett eds., Family forms in historic Europe (Cambridge, 1983).
7. For a classic survey of the anthropological evidence, see R. Linton, The study of man (New York, 1936), 152-172
8. A recent assessment is offered in P. P. Viazzo and F. Remotti, 'La famiglia: uno sguardo antropologico', in P. P. Viazzo et al., La famiglia (Milan, 2007), 40-65.
9. A. Burguière and F. Lebrun, 'The one hundred and one families of Europe', in A. Burguiè re, C. Klapisch-Zuber, M. Segalen and F. Zonabend eds., A history of the family, vol.1 (Oxford, 1996), 19.
10. This prediction is critically recalled in M. Segalen's 'Introduction' toM. Gullestad and M. Segalen eds., Family and kinship in Europe (London, 1997), 1.
11. A. Macfarlane, 'Demographic structures and cultural regions in Europe', Cambridge Anthropology 6, 1-2 (1980), 1-17.
12. Macfarlane, 'Demographic structures', 4.
13. Ibid. Macfarlane, 'Demographic structures', 4.
14. Macfarlane, 'Demographic structures', 5.
15. R. M. Smith, 'The people of Tuscany and their families in the fifteenth century: medieval or "Mediterranean" ? ', Journal of Family History 6 (1981), 107-128
16. J. Hajnal, 'Two kinds of preindustrial household formation system', Population and Development Review 8 (1982), 449-494
17. P. Laslett, 'Family and household as work group and kin group: areas of traditional Europe compared', in R. Wall, J. Robin and P. Laslett eds., Family forms in historic Europe (Cambridge, 1983), 516-535
18. Macfarlane, 'Demographic structures', 1.
19. P. Laslett, 'Family and collectivity', Sociology and Social Research 63 (1979), 432-442
20. P. Laslett, 'Family, kinship and collectivity as systems of support in pre-industrial Europe: a consideration of the nuclear-hardship hypothesis', Continuity and Change 3 (1988), 153-175
21. P. Horden, 'Family history and hospital history in the Middle Ages', in E. Sonnino ed., Living in the city (Rome, 2004), 260.
22. For a critical discussion of the relationships between historical studies of domestic arrangements and welfare systems see also P. Horden, 'Household care and informal networks: comparisons and continuities from antiquity to the present', in P. Horden and R. Smith eds., The locus of care: families, communities, institutions, and the provision of welfare since antiquity (London, 1998), 24-25
23. D. I. Kertzer, Family life in Central Italy, 1880-1910 (New Brunswick, N.J., 1984), 95-97
24. See e.g. P. Bourdelais, ' Vieillir en famille dans la France des ménages complexes: l'exemple de Prayssans, 1836-1911', Annales de Démographie Historique 22 (1985), 21-38.
25. The debate is reviewed in P. P. Viazzo, 'What's so special about the Mediterranean? Thirty years of research on household and family in Italy', Continuity and Change 18 (2003), 114-121
26. D. I. Kertzer, 'Household history and sociological theory', Annual Review of Sociology (1991), 156.
27. See especially Horden, 'Household care', 24-31
28. and S. Cavallo, 'Family obligations and inequalities in access to care in northern Italy, sixteenth and seventeenth centuries', in P. Horden and R. Smith eds., The locus of care (London, 1998), 90-110.
29. D. S. Reher, 'Family ties in Western Europe: persistent contrasts ', Population and Development Review 24 (1998), 203-234
30. See Viazzo, 'What's so special', 122-129
31. Reher, 'Family ties ', 209.
32. See e.g. K. A. Lynch, Individuals, families, and communities in Europe, 1200-1800 (Cambridge, 2003), 11-12.
33. See e.g. S. Cavallo, 'L'importanza della "famiglia orizzontale" nella storia della famiglia italiana', in I. Fazio and D. Lombardi eds., Generazioni: legami di parentela tra passato e presente (Rome, 2006), 68-72.
34. M. Barbagli, M. Castiglioni and G. Dalla Zuanna, Fare famiglia in Italia (Bologna, 2003
35. G. Therborn, Between sex and power: family in the world, 1900-2000 (London and New York, 2004
36. G. Dalla Zuanna and G. A. Micheli eds., Strong family and low fertility : a paradox? (Dordrecht, 2004).
37. F. G. Castles ed., Families of nations: patterns of public policy in Western democracies (Aldershot, 1993).
38. Carried out between 2000 and 2003, this project studied informal and formal social care arrangements in five European countries selected to represent a wide spectrum of religious and cultural traditions: Finland, France, Italy, Portugal and the United Kingdom. Details are available at http://www.uta.fi/ laitokset/sospol/soccare/.
39. Eurostat, The life of women and men in Europe, 1980-2000: a statistical portrait (Luxembourg, 2002). An updated edition was published in 2008.
40. Eleven countries have contributed data to the 2004 SHARE baseline study: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. Further data have been collected at later stages and new waves have been announced. See A. Börsch-Supan, K. Hank and H. Jürges, 'A new comprehensive and international view on ageing: introducing the "Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe" ', European Journal of Ageing 2 (2005), 245-253, and the information available at http://www.share-project.org/t3/share.
41. Funded by the European Union's Sixth Framework Programme, this project has been coordinated by the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology (Halle, Germany) and has covered eight European countries: Austria, Croatia, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Russia and Sweden. Details are available at http://www.eth.mpg.de/kass/.
42. See e.g. A. Pfenning and T. Bahle eds., Families and family policies in Europe (Frankfurt, 2000)
43. M. Naldini, The family in the Mediterranean welfare states (London, 2003).
44. Therborn, Between sex and power. I am grateful to Professor Chiara Saraceno for directing my attention to this book and its implications.
45. M. Kohli, H. Küund and J. Ludicke, 'Family structure, proximity and contact', in A. Börsch-Supan et al. eds., Health, ageing and retirement in Europe-first results from SHARE (Mannheim, 2006), 170.
46. See e.g. J. Finch, 'Kinship and friendship', in R. Jowell, S. Witherspoon and L. Brook eds., British social attitudes (Aldershot, 1989), 89-92
47. and F. Höllinger and M. Haller, (1990), 'Kinship and social networks in modern societies: a cross-cultural comparison among seven nations', European Sociological Review 6 (1990), 108-111 (both based on the 1986 ISSP survey
48. and M. Jylhäand J. Jokela, 'Individual experiences as cultural: a cross-cultural study of loneliness among the elderly', Ageing and Society 10 (1990), 300-308 (based on the eleven-country study on health care of the elderly of 1979-1980).
49. K. Hank, Spatial proximity and contacts between elderly parents and their adult children: a European comparison, Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Discussions Papers 510 (Berlin, 2005), 9.
50. See also J. Ogg and S. Renaut, 'The support of parents in old age by those born during 1945-1954: a European perspective', Ageing and Society 26 (2006), 723-743
51. C. Attias-Donfut, J. Ogg and F.-C. Wolff, 'Family support', in Börsch-Supan et al. eds., Health, ageing and retirement, 177.
52. See C. Attias-Donfut, J. Ogg and F.-C. Wolff, 'European patterns of intergenerational financial and time transfers', European Journal of Ageing 2 (2005), 161-173
53. and also M. Albertini, M. Kohli and C. Vogel, 'Intergenerational transfers of time and money in European families: common patterns-different regimes? ', Journal of European Social Policy 17 (2007), 319-334
54. The six countries investigated by ICE are France, Germany, Italy, Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic; details are available at http://www.fondazionenordest. net/Immigrazione.31.0.html.
55. For a recent analysis of ICE data on patterns of residential proximity between young adults and their mothers, see G. Dalla Zuanna, F. Michielin and F. Bordignon, 'Prossimità abitativa dei giovani adulti con le loro madri: un confronto europeo', in A. Rosina and P. P. Viazzo eds., Oltre le mura domestiche: famiglia e legami intergenerazionali dall'Unità d'Italia ad oggi (Udine 2008) 45-68.
56. S. O. Daatland and K. Herlofson, ' "Lost solidarity" or "changed solidarity" : a comparative European view of normative family solidarity', Ageing and Society 23 (2003), 540.
57. M. Barbagli, Sotto lo stesso tetto: mutamenti della famiglia in Italia dal XV al XX secolo, 2nd edn (Bologna, 2000), 117.
58. Barbagli, Castiglioni and Dalla Zuanna, Fare famiglia in Italia, 13-73, 173-235.
59. Attias-Donfut, Ogg and Wolff, 'Financial transfers', in Börsch-Supan et al. eds., Health, ageing and retirement, 182.
60. Similar findings are reported in T. Kröger, Comparative research on social care: the state of the art, SOCCARE Project Report 1 (Brussels, 2001).
61. Therborn, Between sex and power, 297.
62. Ibid., Therborn, Between sex and power, 305
63. Ibid., 220-222
64. Ibid., 11.
65. Ibid., 243.
66. V. L. Bengtson, 'Beyond the nuclear family: the increasing importance of multigenerational bonds', Journal of Marriage and Family 63 (2001), 11.
67. V. L. Bengtson, 'Beyond the nuclear family: the increasing importance of multigenerational bonds', Journal of Marriage and Family 63 (2001), 11. Ibid.
68. D. Gaggio, 'Cinquant'anni dopo Banfield: come ripensare il ruolo della cultura nella storia economica? ', Contemporanea 10 (2007), 712.
69. Although the semiotic definition of culture proposed by Gaggio draws heavily on C. Geertz, The interpretation of cultures (New York, 1973), the contrast with behavioural norms it entails is reminiscent of the distinction suggested by Laslett between 'ethical rules', enforceable by legal sanctions, and 'noumenal normative rules', thus defined in opposition to 'phenomenal' and believed to be culturally specific regulations embedded in collective attitudes and capable of unconsciously dictating the parameters within which conscious choices are made: see P. Laslett, 'Demographic and microstructural history in relation to human adaptation', in D. J. Ortner ed., How humans adapt: a biocultural odyssey (Washington, 1983), 353-356
70. The results of these socio-historical investigations are presented in H. Grandits ed., Family, kinship and state during the century of welfare (Kinship and social security in contemporary Europe, vol. 1, forthcoming).
71. D. Gaunt, 'Strengthening weak ties : Swedish welfare and kinship', in Grandits ed., Family, kinship and state.
72. D. Gaunt, 'Strengthening weak ties : Swedish welfare and kinship', Family, kinship and state. Ibid.
73. H. Rosenbaum and E. Timm, 'The relationships between family, kin and social security in twentieth-century Germany', in Grandits ed., Family, kinship and state.
74. See J. Millar and A. Warman, Family obligations in Europe (London, 1996), 36
75. and also Naldini, The family, 122-125
76. Millar and Warman, Family obligations, 41.
77. E. Durkheim, Professional ethics and civil morals (London, 1957), 213-214
78. Although some crucial aspects of wealth transfers have gained attention in sociological scholarship only recently, there is now a range of countries for which transfer studies based on nationally representative survey data are available. These studies suggest that the aggregate wealth of contemporary cohorts due to bequests and inter vivos transfers, though probably less than before the industrial revolution, is much more than sociological lore would have us believe. In particular, they show that inter vivos transfers occur at a considerable rate and flow mainly from the older to the younger generations, and that bequests have increased for younger cohorts. See M. Kohli, 'Intergenerational transfers and inheritance: a comparative view', Annual Review of Gerontology and Geriatrics 24 (2004), 266-289
79. and also J. Beckert, 'Inheritance', in J. Beckert and M. Zafirovski eds., International Encyclopedia of Economic Sociology (London, 2006), 355-360
80. M. Segalen, 'The modern reality of kinship: sources and significance of new kinship forms in contemporary Europe', in P. Heady and M. Kohli eds., Counting the consequences: alternative approaches to the political economy of kinship (Kinship and social security in contemporary Europe, vol. 3, forthcoming).
81. Cf. H. Marks and D. Gaunt, 'Two Swedish localities ' and C. Capello and N. Colclough, 'A moral familism? Family clusters, neighbourhood and social welfare in a South Italian community', in P. Heady and P. Schweizer eds., Family, kinship and community at the start of the 21st century (Kinship and social security in contemporary Europe, vol. 2, forthcoming).
82. See e.g. Daatland and Herlofson, ' "Lost solidarity" ', and in particular Jylhäand Jokela, 'Individual experiences ', on the contrast, respectively, between Norway and Spain and between urban Finland and rural Greece.
83. See e.g. Segalen, 'Modern reality of kinship' (on Vällingby vs. Tramonti)
84. and also Daatland and Herlofson, ' "Lost solidarity" ', 550-551 (on Norway vs. Spain).
85. Segalen, 'Kinship ties ', 370-371
86. Therborn, Between sex and power, 190-191
87. On path dependence see P. David, 'Path dependence, its critics and the quest for " historical economics" ', in P. Garrouste and S. Ioannides eds., Evolution and path dependence in economic ideas: past and present (Cheltenham, 2001), 15-40.
88. M. Kalmijn and C. Saraceno, 'A comparative perspective on intergeneration support: responsiveness to parental needs in individualistic and familialistic countries', European Societies 10 (2008), 479-508.
89. M. Kalmijn and C. Saraceno, 'A comparative perspective on intergeneration support: responsiveness to parental needs in individualistic and familialistic countries', European Societies 10 (2008), 479-508. 504
90. Marks and Gaunt, 'Two Swedish localities '.
91. B. Malinowski, Argonauts of the Western Pacific (London, 1922), 17.
92. Marks and Gaunt, 'Two Swedish localities '.