Family Life and Individual Welfare in Postwar Europe: Britain and Italy Compared (St Antony's Series)

Throughout the postwar period, changes in individual behaviour and legal reforms have transformed traditional notions of family life throughout Western Europe. However, interpretations of what constituted a desirable family life varied, together with the type of social intervention adopted towards it. Taking Britain and Italy as comparative cases, the author explores the extent to which dominant notions of family life differed in postwar Britain and Italy and the implications this had on the development of family policy in these two countries. What makes a family ? As traditional definitions of what constitute a family seem to be increasingly challenged in public debates, Stefania Bernini explores which factors were most influential in shaping dominant notions of family life in the post-war period. Taking Britain and Italy as comparative cases, she shows how in both countries the family was used in the post-war period as a privileged means of pursuing political interests, partly as a consequence of the new political landscape created by the emergence of the welfare state. However, approaches to the regulation of family life ultimately diverged in Italy and Britain, as a result of long established cultural differences and contingent political factors. The book identifies the main areas in which this divergence was apparent, and discusses the long term consequences of the different routes followed by the two countries after the Second World War Front Matter....Pages i-vii Introduction....Pages 1-10 Family, State and Democratic Development in Britain and Italy....Pages 11-22 The Family in the Political Debate....Pages 23-47 Moral and Scientific Discussions....Pages 48-75 The Edges of the Family: State, Citizens and the ‘Children deprived of a normal home life’....Pages 76-107 Recreating the Family: Single Mothers, Maladjusted Children and the Search for a New Home....Pages 108-130 Conclusions....Pages 131-138 Back Matter....Pages 139-199