Families and the State

KAREN CLARKE is Senior Lecturer in Social Policy, University of Manchester, UK JANET FINCH is Vice-Chancellor of Keele University, UK GILL JONES is Professor of Sociology at Keele University, UK JANE LEWIS is Professor of Social Policy at the University of Oxford, UK BEVERLEY PREVATT-GOLDSTEIN is Director of the Black Minority Ethnic North East Voluntary Sector Network, UK JOHN J. RODGER is Reader in Social Policy and Sociology at the University of Paisley, UK PETER SELMAN is Reader in Social Policy at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne TOM SHAKESPEARE is Director of Outreach for the Policy, Ethics and Life Sciences Research Institute (PEALS), UK ALAN TAPPER Teaches Philosophy at Edith Cowan University, Perth, Australia NICK WATSON is Senior Lecturer in the School of Health and Wellbeing at the University of Edinburgh, UK

How possible is it for the state to steer family values and relationships? How do we assess claims of harm and benefit from state action and inaction? The evidence presented includes state engagements with separating couples, lone parents, retired people, black families, disabled people, pregnant teenagers and young people negotiating adulthood.How possible is it for the state to steer family values and relationships? How do we assess claims of harm and benefit from state action and inaction? What kind of engagement should we seek between the state and our personal lives? The evidence presented includes state engagements with separating couples, lone parents, retired people, black families, disabled people, pregnant teenagers and young people negotiating adulthood. The range of perspectives, data, and cross-nation-state comparisons, helps readers to come to their own conclusions.