A Revolution in Family Policy

Where We Should Go from Here

Henricson, Clem, Clem Henricson

• Publisher: Policy Press
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN:
  9781447300526
• eBook ISBN:
  9781447308621
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Scienze sociali
• Subtopic: Sociologia del matrimonio e della famiglia

This book offers a radical rethink of family policy in the UK. Clem Henricson, the family policy expert, analyses in detail the major shift in the role of the state viz a viz personal relationships in recent years, with its aspirations to reduce child poverty, increase social mobility and deliver social cohesion.Brought in by New Labour and carried forward, albeit in diluted form, by the Coalition, Henricson asks whether this philosophy of social betterment through manipulating the parent-child relationship is appropriate for family policy. She challenges the thinking behind the expectation that you can change a highly unequal society through the family route.Instead the argument is made for a family policy with its own raison d'etre, free of other government agendas. A premium is set on the need to manage the multiple core tensions in families of affection, empathy and supportiveness on the one hand and aggression, deception and self interest on the other. A set of coherent support and control polices for family relations are developed which endorse this awareness and embrace a fundamental shift in perspective for future progressive governments.

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Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of abbreviations
• About the author
• Acknowledgements
• One: Introduction
• Two: The changed landscape
• Three: What was at the root of it?
• Four: The legacy and the Coalition government
• Five: What was wrong?
• Six: Looking to the future
• Seven: Conclusion: the proposal and future scenarios
• Notes
• References