Stefania Bernini. Family Life and Individual Welfare in Post-War Europe: Britain and Italy Compared. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008. 199 pp. ISBN 978-1-4039-8795-2; $69.95 (cloth), ISBN 978-1-4039-8795-2.
Reviewed by Ingrid Soderlind (Institute for Futures Studies, Stockholm)
Published on H-Childhood (February, 2009)
Commissioned by Patrick J. Ryan
Family, State, and Welfare
Almost every day, leading newspapers contain articles on parents, children, and childhood. Family life is largely a public issue even though many of the problems that are discussed purportedly belong to the private sphere. Family life is also a societal concern. Whether, when, and how the state or social authorities should intervene, and how responsibilities should be divided between state and family, and between state and the individual, have been important issues since the late nineteenth century. Stefania Bernini’s book on family life and individual welfare gives insights into the discussions and negotiations on norms as well as rules and regulations concerning family life in postwar Britain and Italy.
Bernini describes the point of departure of the book as "a desire to understand how changes in family life have been perceived, conceptualised and discussed in two different political, social and cultural contexts throughout the post-war periodquot; (p. 2). She focuses specifically on care. The main issues Bernini addresses pertain to whether, how, why, and to what extent investment in the family differs between Britain and Italy; whether it is possible to identify differences in how family relations have been conceptualized; and whether differences in family politics are due to cultural factors, socioeconomic structures, or political conditions. Bernini is interested in the main actors shaping the dominant definitions of "family." In her interpretation, she applies theories of Jacques Donzelot and Christopher Lasch to understand the regulations of the family in the welfare state; however, she could have used their theoretical frameworks more explicitly in her analyses. Throughout the book, Bernini uses many quotations, long and short, some consisting of only one or two words. The quotations give contemporary color; however, using many quotations sometimes tends to make the text more reporting than analyzing.
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