ICS-WP7-The-Grandmother-Project-May-2004.pdf - page 1/20 - Institute of Community Studies
![Institute of Community Studies](pages/page-0001-small.png)
ICS-WP7-The-Grandmother-Project-May-2004.pdf - page 2/20 - TOWARDS A NEW PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN FAMILY…
![TOWARDS A NEW PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN FAMILY AND STATE (The Grandmother Project)](pages/page-0002-small.png)
ICS-WP7-The-Grandmother-Project-May-2004.pdf - page 3/20 - INTRODUCTION
![INTRODUCTION](pages/page-0003-small.png)
ICS-WP7-The-Grandmother-Project-May-2004.pdf - page 4/20 - It is important to note that this is not…
![It is important to note that this is not the same thing as giving extended families primary responsibility (which they have in many countries) for basic individual security. It is more a matter of finding ways of rendering state support more compatible with, and less undermining of, family structures.](pages/page-0004-small.png)
ICS-WP7-The-Grandmother-Project-May-2004.pdf - page 5/20 - HALF A CENTURY OF MISUNDERSTANDING
![HALF A CENTURY OF MISUNDERSTANDING](pages/page-0005-small.png)
ICS-WP7-The-Grandmother-Project-May-2004.pdf - page 6/20 - become adults. This was absurd when adul…
![become adults. This was absurd when adulthood was achieved at 21. It is even more so now that the age of majority is 18, and for practical purposes (such as the ending of child benefit) aspects of independent citizenship are achieved at 16. Parents are not just for childhood. They play a crucial and long-term part in helping young peoples transition to adult life: indeed it is arguable that two of the most important stages in parenthood occur when children are adults: first during the period when they are moving out into the world to establish themselves as responsible members of the community, and second when they need support as parents themselves. To treat parents as suddenly becoming `childless when their offspring reach a certain age, as so much official thinking does, is to fail to understand family life.](pages/page-0006-small.png)
ICS-WP7-The-Grandmother-Project-May-2004.pdf - page 7/20 - Rediscovering grandmothers
![Rediscovering grandmothers](pages/page-0007-small.png)
ICS-WP7-The-Grandmother-Project-May-2004.pdf - page 8/20 - Thus it is grannies who are typically th…
![Thus it is grannies who are typically the guardians of the common good. They are the family peace-makers, match-makers and advisers. And while they mainly operate inside families, in most societies the wider moral systems shaping relations between families and between other groups in the community, and informing law and religion, are themselves rooted in the moral economy of family life. All in all, the grandmother hypothesis provides ample encouragement for the general idea that it is older women who are the main authors of human culture, architects of social structure and trustees of community interests. Even Stalin did not enjoy popular legitimacy until he had listened to ordinary grandmothers, and there is no reason to suppose that contemporary social revolutionaries are any different.](pages/page-0008-small.png)
ICS-WP7-The-Grandmother-Project-May-2004.pdf - page 9/20 - and power encourages them to believe tha…
![and power encourages them to believe that a life of independence is within their reach. During this period it is usually helpful to stay close to their own mothers, who can help them to understand and embrace long-term goals. But the effect of current state support is often to reinforce choices hostile to their best interests, by encouraging them to ignore irksome parental influence. The package of public benefits available to them creates incentives to behaviour which is short-termist in the extreme.](pages/page-0009-small.png)
ICS-WP7-The-Grandmother-Project-May-2004.pdf - page 10/20 - motivated, under-qualified and under-emp…
![motivated, under-qualified and under-employed men who have drifted from school failure, drugs and nuisance-behaviour into self-destructive lifestyles and serious criminality. There never has been a higher proportion of the male population in prison.](pages/page-0010-small.png)
ICS-WP7-The-Grandmother-Project-May-2004.pdf - page 11/20 - Todays grandparents, who are not regarde…
![Todays grandparents, who are not regarded by the state as meriting an automatic right of access to their grandchildren, are no longer able to enjoy the rewards of their investment in offspring over the years. The system does not allow them to anticipate or work for such rewards as a matter of course. Their involvement with grandchildren is increasingly as troubleshooters, pulled in after the event to clear up a mess which they were not allowed to help prevent in the first place. It is a thankless task of responsibility without power, or even much voice, and it is doubtful whether many will be willing to go on playing that sort of role for much longer.](pages/page-0011-small.png)
ICS-WP7-The-Grandmother-Project-May-2004.pdf - page 12/20 - RESHAPING SOCIAL SECURITY
![RESHAPING SOCIAL SECURITY](pages/page-0012-small.png)
ICS-WP7-The-Grandmother-Project-May-2004.pdf - page 13/20 - However we feel that this debate does no…
![However we feel that this debate does not deal with the essential elements of family life, and that the argument about marriage may not really be the key matter to resolve. Marriage has perhaps been central to the debate because of the way that the postwar state identified nuclear family households as the primary focus of its provisions. What we suspect is much more important to family life is the descent tie, and parenthood, and above all lifelong motherhood. Unless descent relationships are brought into the discussion as possible axes of public support then marriage is not going to have much relevance. In order to uphold marriage, it is essential to recognise and promote descent first. It is descent which epitomises the enduring shared interests which family life expresses. It may be the failure of the postwar welfare state to appreciate this which has led to the general weakening of family relationships and identities, and to resulting problems of which the current tribulations of `marriage are but one manifestation.](pages/page-0013-small.png)
ICS-WP7-The-Grandmother-Project-May-2004.pdf - page 14/20 - This cannot mean that Mothers should do …
![This cannot mean that Mothers should do everything. They would not want this anyway. One of the principles that their hegemony used to embrace was that womens power lay as much in getting other people (not least men) to do something as in actually doing it themselves. As children grow up, a mothers role becomes increasingly managerial or advisory. Much of it lies in understanding how best to draw on the resources available to a family, identifying who should do what, and getting them to do it. So for the state to `recognise family would not mean making older mothers responsible. What it does entail is considering their views and positions, being ready to involve them in decisions, and then structuring support to family members in forms which take them into account.](pages/page-0014-small.png)
ICS-WP7-The-Grandmother-Project-May-2004.pdf - page 15/20 - younger people generally soak it up. Thi…
![younger people generally soak it up. This is easily forgotten. It is not visible to officers of the state, because it takes place mainly within `informal contexts of family and community. In official social audits old people are treated simply as recipients of public resources. This often colours our perception of older people within the family.](pages/page-0015-small.png)
ICS-WP7-The-Grandmother-Project-May-2004.pdf - page 16/20 - and the shrinkage of family life which c…
![and the shrinkage of family life which could have provided a balance. A state that is too directly youth-centred, drawing young people quickly into the public realm, may not actually be good for children. The restoration of old people as favoured recipients of public support, with more influence over public agendas, would help to correct a number of worrying trends, such as the loss of childhood. Not only might it do much to reduce disparities in wealth and influence, and to halt the explosion of direct claims for support on the state, but it could also help to restore the private realm of the family as a protected location for childhood.](pages/page-0016-small.png)
ICS-WP7-The-Grandmother-Project-May-2004.pdf - page 17/20 - If the state is to work with descent gro…
![If the state is to work with descent groups it should try to avoid encouraging them to split prematurely that is while senior members are still alive and happy to go on playing their kinship role. The issue of single-motherhood is significant here, in that state provision does appear frequently to create incentives for new family groups to hive off before they may be ready to do so. Insofar as social services treat teenage single mothers as fully autonomous citizens, they are effectively enabling very young and inexperienced people to set up new, independent descent groups of their own.](pages/page-0017-small.png)
ICS-WP7-The-Grandmother-Project-May-2004.pdf - page 18/20 - Rewarding marriage
![Rewarding marriage](pages/page-0018-small.png)
ICS-WP7-The-Grandmother-Project-May-2004.pdf - page 19/20 - sense. It is likely, given ballooning st…
![sense. It is likely, given ballooning state expenditures on the consequences of family breakdown, that such reforms could prove cost effective.](pages/page-0019-small.png)
ICS-WP7-The-Grandmother-Project-May-2004.pdf - page 20/20 - Geoff Dench Frank Field Michael Young & …
![Geoff Dench Frank Field Michael Young & A H Halsey Geoff Dench Michael Young & Lesley Cullen Michael Young & Gerard Lemos Geoff Dench & Jim Ogg Geoff Dench Jim Ogg](pages/page-0020-small.png)