Family Solidarity Research Articles

Family Solidarity in Exile and in Law: Alberti Lawsuits of the Early Quattrocento

This paper is about law in early quattrocento, specifically about lawsuits involving exiles. Exile was result of political or economic misfortune, but it was also a family tragedy. Fathers, sons, and brothers were forced to leave communities of their birth and citizenship; property was confiscated and sold, women and children left to carry on in greatly reduced circumstances and facing an uncertain future from a harsh and hostile present. The cases I will be discussing raise in interesting ways some valuable perspectives on families acting under du ress. The legal maneuvers of Alberti in exile and their treatment by jurists reveal something of conception and dynamic of meaning of family only a few decades prior to Florence's first catasto of 1427. These cases cannot give insight into demographic and residential dimensions of domestic life, which are well known for Florence thanks to pioneering work of David Herlihy, culminating in Les Toscans et leurs familles, coauthored with Christiane Klapisch-Zuber.1 However, there are certainly other dimensions to family. Herlihy himself, at end of his career, went on to investigate family a moral unit and a moral universe: a unit in sense that it is sharply differ entiated from larger associations of kin and community, and a universe in sense that human relations within it are very different from human relations out side its limits.2 Herlihy situated in Florence?and notably in texts of that bastard sired in exile Leon Battista Alberti?a new and wide division between household and based on the apprehension of external society as hostile and demanding.3 Government intrusion and a cash economy posed such poten tial external threats. Kin were forced to rely on each other more so than before for help and comfort. Exile would seem above all to be an extended moment of testing bonds of family solidarity in opposition to forces loose in wider society.4 It can bring into view what strengths there were to material and

Sex Differences in Mortality at the Local Level: An Analysis of Belgian Municipalities

Explanations for the consistentfemale mortality advantage have ranged from thebiological, through the behavioural to thesocial, but we are still far from asatisfactory explanation. The current mortalityadvantage, which women enjoy in almost allsocieties and age groups, is not a historicaluniversal. Indeed, it may even be a uniquedevelopment of the 20th century. Even ifthis is the case, however, this does not makeit a necessary corollary of low mortality.Human mortality reflects the pattern of socialrelationships, standards of living, livingarrangements, and patterns of power andinequality in the society, and althoughmortality levels are similar for men and forwomen, they nonetheless display importantdifferences. These differences, in their turn,reflect the pattern of relationships betweenmen and women in the society. The presentanalysis looks at mortality levels anddifferences between men and women in Belgium.We focus on aggregate effects at themunicipality level (the smallest level oflocal government), and show that mortality isnegatively associated with high standards ofliving; familial solidarity; immigrantconcentration and a stable, locally born,population. It is positively associated with ahigh tendency to cohabitation. Male mortalityis more sensitive to social conditions than isfemale mortality so that as conditions improvethe female mortality advantage declines. Wealso show that net of these conditions thereremains a mortality disadvantage inWallonia, and this can only partly be explainedin terms of social differences between the twomajor regions of the country.

Economic Development and the Rights Hypothesis: The China Problem

An important school of thought in institutional economics holds that economic growth requires a legal order offering stable and predictable rights of property and contract because the absence of such rights discourages investment and specialization. In general, the legal order described by this school is something along the lines of the legal systems of the developed countries of the West (excluding Japan, which is rarely discussed). I will call this proposition the Hypothesis. Without the security of expectations offered by such a legal order, according to the Rights Hypothesis, the risks of a great number of otherwise beneficial transactions far outweigh their expected return, and as a result such transactions simply do not occur. Society is mired in an economy of short-term deals between actors bound by non-legal ties such as family solidarity which by their nature cannot bind large numbers of strangers.' best known discussion of the relationship between legal institutions and the economy is, of course, Max Weber's.2 A classic Weberian formulation of the role of legal institutions in the economy states: The universal predominance of the market consociation requires . . . a legal system the functioning of which is calculable in accordance with rational rules.3 (As will be shown later, this is not exactly the Rights Hypothesis in its most ambitious form.) law and development movement in the 1960s produced a great deal of literature advancing the view that through institutions such as contract and private property rights, modern law promotes the develop-

:The Strozzi of Florence: Widowhood and Family Solidarity in the Renaissance

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Beyond Marriage and the Convent: Women, Class and Honour in Renaissance Italy

Ann Crabb, The Strozzi of Florence: Widowhood and Family Solidarity in the RenaissanceStanley Chojnacki, Women and Men in Renaissance Venice: Twelve Essays on Patrician SocietyMonica Chojnacka, Working Women of Early Modern VeniceJoanne M. Ferraro, Marriage Wars in Late Renaissance Venice

Family system of help and aid against the background of social transformation

This paper sums up the results of empirical research into the intergenerational solidarity in Czech families which should help to answer the question whether the family or the kinship system can discharge their self-supportive potential adequately under the pressures of the transformation processes during the 1990s. It also describes the macro-social framework, i.e. the socio-political, economic and demographic context that influences the quantitative and qualitative aspects of kinship assistance. Overall, the paper provides a general picture of informal support systems as the basis for the specific recommendation for practical social work.

A wedding in the family: home making in a global kin network

Rituals such as weddings and funerals are significant for transnational family networks as events where scattered relatives meet and validate shared kinship and common origins. They are particularly important when taking place at a family ‘home’ that has been a centre of social and economic relations and locus of emotional attachment. This article analyses a wedding on a Caribbean island involving a large global family network, which occurred at a critical point in the family’s history. It became an occasion when members asserted their notions of belonging rooted in the ‘home’, not just as members of a common kin group, but as persons whose life trajectories had involved them in different social, economic and geographical contexts. Individually they had dissimilar interpretations and expectations of their place in the home, and these were played out at the wedding. The gathering allowed a display of family solidarity, but was also a site where differing views of individuals’ contribution to the global household were expressed, and rights to belong in the family home and, by implication, the island were contested.

Economic Development and the Rights Hypothesis: The China Problem

An important school of thought in institutional economics (the Hypothesis) holds that economic growth requires a legal order offering stable and predictable rights of property and contract because the absence of such rights discourages investment and specialization. Without the security of expectations offered by such a legal order, according to the Rights Hypothesis, the risks of a great number of otherwise beneficial transactions far outweigh their expected return, and as a result such transactions simply do not occur. Society is mired in an economy of short-term deals between actors bound by non-legal ties such as family solidarity which by their nature cannot bind large numbers of strangers. The history of China's post-Mao economic reform has provided interesting material against which to test the Rights Hypothesis. Two features of that history in particular stand out. First, the institutions by which rights are enforced, in particular courts, are perceived to be weak, and thus rights are perceived to be unenforceable. (It is perception, which determines whether persons are willing to invest and make deals, that counts for purposes of the Rights Hypothesis.) Second, China has indeed enjoyed substantial economic growth in recent years. There are many ways to interpret these observations. First, the hypothesis could be right and the observation of weak legal institutions wrong: rights are enforced in the system, but in a way that is not immediately apparent. Second, the hypothesis could be right and the observation of growth wrong: either the statistics are misleading, or growth is actually low relative to what it would have been with stronger legal institutions. Third, the hypothesis could simply be wrong: there is no strong link between legal institutions and economic growth. Each of the above interpretations has a certain plausibility. On the other hand, they cannot all be correct. In this paper I propose an understanding of Chinese legal institutions and their impact on economic transactions (and on investment in particular) that will allow us, if not to reconcile, at least to refine these different interpretations to make them less mutually inconsistent. More broadly, I will propose a reformulation of the Rights Hypothesis that retains the emphasis on security of property but substantially downgrades the importance of a formal legal system that provides effective enforcement of contract rights.

Reviews of Books:The Strozzi of Florence: Widowhood and Family Solidarity in the Renaissance Ann Crabb

Reviews of Books:The Strozzi of Florence: Widowhood and Family Solidarity in the Renaissance Ann Crabb

The Role of Grandparents

This article presents the results of a research project based on in-depth interviews with newly retired grandparents and adolescents. Three basic patterns of relationship between grandparents and grandchildren emerge. On a wider level, this study echoes the flood of research over the last 20 years in the sociology of the family, research about intergenerational relationships and family solidarity. It is notable that this growth in interest conflicts with the emphasis placed upon the autonomy of generations by welfare states, materialized in that public sphere of exchange, the social welfare system. The author describes the socio-cultural context that has allowed assistance delivered within the family to be recognized and to become the subject of such interest. Certain pointers to a change in attitude are appearing, the most significant affecting age scales, family assistance and even the functioning of the welfare state.

Solidarity in Dutch Families

The nature and extent of interpersonal exchange of care and help may indicate solidarity and cohesion in modern society. This article focuses on intergenerational solidarity. On the basis of empirical data from an earlier research project on giving in the Netherlands, the authors examine the nature and determinants of intergenerational solidarity and compare the relative importance of familial and intergenerational solidarity with solidarity toward friends. The results of their analyses show that solidarity toward parents and solidarity toward friends are based on different types of feelings. Familial solidarity appears still to have an overriding importance when compared to solidarity toward friends; however, this is so only in terms of the frequency of offered assistance and care and not in terms of the accompanying feelings: love and affection are reserved for helping friends, whereas Durkheimian norms of moral obligation are the main feeling people have when helping their parents.

What Do Believers Believe? A Survey in Poggibonsi (Italy)

The author of this article presents some results of a sociological research project into implicit religion in an area of Tuscany (Italy) that has been subject to rapid economic and social changes. From the analysis emerges a model of life based on material productivity, familial and social solidarity, while the religious beliefs of Catholicism, in spite of a certain belonging, remain in the background as traditional symbols. The function of rites is ambivalent. The author concludes that the essential characteristic of religion in his area is dynamism.

Introduction - Filiation and Identity: Towards a Sociology of Intergenerational Relations

While American sociology, in the wake of Talcott Parsons's work, foregrounds the nuclear family, European sociology focuses on solidarity. In fact, the concept of family solidarity is essential to the French sociological tradition. The French-speaking world has become one of the most dynamic grounds for this kind of sociology, with the development of longitudinal methods and biographical methods, which have progressively brought along a new approach to the notion of family and prompted the use of another methodology.

Intergenerational Solidarity: Between the Family and the State

Until the end of the 1970s, the sociology of the family neglected the vertical relationships between generations in favour of horizontal links between parents. The family was liberated from the weight of kinship and the nuclear model became the inevitable reference. But, with steady political, social and demographic changes, the horizontal relationships collapsed as sole model. Links between generations are becoming more and more important. With the crisis of the welfare state, increasing responsibility is being moved into the private arena. The lack of commitment and the progressive withdrawal of public institutions in the matter of social assistance has foregrounded family solidarity. Since the 1980s, many authors have warned of the dangers of considering private and public flows in solidarity as substitutable. Indeed, we have to regard them as complementary.

ESCOLA DE PAIS: RELATÓRIO

De acordo com o previsto pelo Estatuto da Criança e do Adolescente - ECA em seu art. 129, parágr. ^lv, cap. V, o qual afirma que são medidas aplicáveis aos pais ou responsável o“encaminhamento a cursos ou programas de orie^lt^lação”, a I a Vara da Infancia e Juventude do Rio de Janeiro criou o Projeto “Escola de Pais”, visando a reintegração familiar de crianças e adolescentes que vivem em situações de risco social, por meio de ação sócio-educacional junto aos pais. Desde 1998 foram realizadas 9 Escolas de Pais, cada urna delas constituída de cerca de 8 encontros em sua primeira fase, quando são trabalhados temas relacionados à educação, saúde e cidadania, constituindo-se numa oportunidade para garantir direitos e estabelecer obrigações na relação pais e filhos. As famílias recebem bolsas de alimentos of erecidas pelaFundação da Infància e Adolescência (FIA), vales transporte, apoio para manter seus filhos em escolas ou creches da comunidade e do Juizado, orientação de assistentes sociais e psicólogas, e outros benefícios, graças a parcerias estabelecidas com instituições, organizações e empresas,incluindo o setor privado. Após essa fase, os participantes são acompanhados por 12 meses pelo programa Família Solidária, subsidiado por pessoas que apadrinham uma das famílias com a contribuição de I salário mínimo mensal. Outra forma de reinserção social é o apoio of erecido na busca de oportunidades de geração de renda para as famílias, que inclui a integração à Cooperativa da Escola de Pais, em funcionamento. As Secretarias de Ação Social e Desenvolvimento Social de Estado e Município, respectivamente, assim como os Conselhos Tutelares estãoenvolvidos no programa, garantindo a continuidade do trabalho além dos limites do Juizado e o acompanhamento das famílias em seus locais de moradia.

Families in Europe: A Private and Political Stake - Intimacy and Solidarity

Under the influence of the process of individualization in western societies, privatization and plurality of families forms have become dominant. Family is, however, presented as a value rather than a structure as defined in Parsons’s terms. Family is listed by most Europeans as the place where they first seek shelter from the ills of social life, and most Europeans place fidelity as the most important factor to keep couples together. Although family has become a private matter, it remains a political stake for its two most important remaining functions: intimacy and solidarity. Although areas like adoption and the role of step-parents are still regulated by the state, due to the crisis of the welfare states and the ageing population in the western world, family solidarity is called on to partly replace state solidarity and intimacy. The article refers to data from a large-scale national Belgian survey to illustrate this.

Caretakers of children with HIV in extended and foster families: The French situation

In the context of HIV infection, the disappearance or inability to assume their parental role of one or both parents has focused attention on the generation of grandparents who are responsible for the offspring. It is only when they are unable or no longer able to do so that uncles or aunts, or even to a lesser extent friends, take on this role. The Aide Sociale à l'Enfance ASE (Child Welfare Authorities) step in as a last resort when there is no kinship option. However, the environmental vulnerability of these families and their psychosocial risk factors, which preceded the advent of HIV, are often behind the children's admission to ASE care. Analysis of the interviews carried out on 36 family members and 20 professional foster families records their involvement on a day-to-day basis with the children, for the most part HIV-infected. It also highlights the constraints and difficulties involved in what is an extreme form of family solidarity, compared with the structured support of institutional care, which in turn has its own limitations. Aufgrund des Verschwindens der Eltern, bzw. ihrer Unfähigkeit, ihre Rolle als Eltern auszufüllen, konzentriert sich im Kontext der Pflege HIV-infizierter Kindern die Aufmerksamkeit zunehmend auf die Großelterngeneration, der damit die Verantowrtung fü'r ihre Nachkommen übertragen wird. Nur wenn diese dazu nicht (mehr) in der Lage sind, übernehmen Onkel und Tanten - und in eine geringeren Maße auch Freunde - diese Rolle. Wenn keine Möglichkeit der verwandschaftlichen Pflege gegeben ist, tritt als letzte Sicherung die soziale Kinderhilfe ( Aide Sociale à l'Enfance ASE ) ein. Der Grund für die Aufnahme von Kindern in die ASE ist oftmals eine geschädigte familiale Umwlet mit ihren psychosozialen Risikofaktoren, die dem Auftreten von HIV vorausging. Die Analyse der Interviews mit 36 Familienmitgliedern und 20 Pflegefamilien dokumentiert den tagtäglichen Umgang mit den zum größten Teil HIV-infizierten Kindern. Sie stellt zudem die Zwänge und Schwierigkeiten dieser extremen Form familialer Solidarität im Vergleich mit der strukturellen Untersüttzung durch institutionalle Hilfen - die ihre eigenen Grenzen haben - heraus. La desaparición o imposibilidad de asumir el rol familiar por parte de uno o ambos padres, debido a la infección por SIDA, ha centrado la atención en los casos de abuelos que se convierten en responsables de su descendencia. Sólo cuando los abuelos y no pueden realizar esa función esta pasa a los tíos, tías o amigos. La Aide Sociale à l'Enfance ASE (las autoridades responsables de atención a la infancia) entran como último recurso cuando no se disponse de una atneción cercana. De todas formas, frecuentemente nos encontramos con que el entorno vulnerable de esas familias y los factores de riesgo psicosocial, previos a la infección por el SIDA, motivan la entrada infantil en la ASE. Se presenta una análisis de 36 miembros de familias y 20 casos de familias cuidadoras que recoge la actividad diaria con los niños, la mayoría de los cuales están infectados por el SIDA. También se subrayan las restricciones y dificultades que envuelven lo que es una forma extrema de solidaridad familiar, comparada con lay ayuda ofrecida por la ayuda institucional, que también cuenta con sus limitaciones. Dans le contexte de l'infection par le virus HIV, la dispartition du rôle parental ou l'incapacité de l'assumer par l'un ou les deux parents ont attiré l'attention sur la génération des grands-parents, qui prend alors en charge la descendance. Les oncles ou les tantes, ou même dans une moindre mesure les amis, endossent le rôle parental uniquement quand les grands-parents en sont incapables ou le defiennent. L'Aide Sociale à l'Enfance (ASE) intervient en dernier ressort quand il n'y a pas de recours familial possible. Quoiqu'il en soit, derriére l'attribution de l'Aide Sociale à l'Enfance se dissimulent souvent une fragilité environnementale et des facteurs de risques psychologiques qui préexistent à l'apparition du virus HIV. Une analyse des entretiens menés auprès de membres de 36 familles d'accueil prodessionnelles, rend compte de leur implication quotidienne auprès des enfants, pour la plupart infectés par le virus HIV. Elle souligne les contraintes et les difficultés rencontrées dans ce qui est une forme extréme de solidarité familiale, par rapport aux aides structurées et aux soins institutionnels, qui ont aussi leurs propres limitations.

Linkages between Family and Societal-Level Intergenerational Attitudes

Issues concerning links between intergenerational expectations at family and societal levels are investigated with survey data from 1,200 respondents aged 40 and over. Both family- and societal-level expectations reflect “generational altruism.” Personal family characteristics and circumstances have little relations to general expectations about parents and children, but family solidarity is related to family expectations, primarily with regard to children. Attitudes about societal-level intercohort relations have little association with personal family circumstances or solidarity. However, expectations about children are related to societal expectations, suggesting that solidarity (and altruism) at the micro level of family ties has some relations to solidarity (and altruism) at the macro level of intercohort relations.

The dynamics of elderly support

This paper analyses the support given to the handicapped elderly by their children on the basis of a large survey done in France where both the elderly and their middle-aged children were interviewed. These data allow us to address such questions as: "Who helps?", "Who receives help?" and "According to what principles?". Besides the principle of need which is at work, the results show that there is also the principle of equity, which functions through reciprocity. This study highlights two main processes in the dynamics of support for the elderly, its redistributive effects (family support mainly benefits the poorest elderly), and its complementarity with the state health care systems (family support is mainly directed towards those who also receive public help). Can we make the deduction that the more generous the welfare state, the more developed family solidarity is? Nevertheless, some difficulties arise: support is mostly given by women. Furthermore there are a small number of people on whose shoulders it falls to take care of everybody else in the family. One sign of these difficulties is that the carers are more often in less good health than the non-carers of the same age. Comparisons from one generation to the other, including the youngest (the children of the middle generation who were also interviewed) shows that the younger generation will not want to be so completely involved in parental care at the expense of their own private time and life. Most probably family involvement will be maintained in the future, but to a lesser extent.

Profession personne-soutien: récit d'une «carrière d'aidante» entre l'amour, les apprentissages et les solidarités

ABSTRACTThis article is about the life story of a woman who has had a career as caregiver for 25 years. Its purpose is to present the main characteristics of her career as a support person who, since the beginning, has struggled every day to find ingenious ways to meet the challenges of caring for a dependent husband. A daily struggle in which love, learning and public, social and family solidarities all come together. Who is this woman? What motivated her to embark on a career as a caregiver? What does the reality of her many learning experiences reveal? What is her attitude towards the support she receives? These are some of the questions raised in this article. Beyond the answers it may provide, it sheds light on the experience and daily management of caregiving. At the same time, it contributes to a better understanding of the family logic of caring for a dependent person.