1 Sociol 322: A sociology of relational lifeFamily obligations
2 Purpose of today Explore what is meant by family obligationExamine how their links to wider political-economic context How are family obligations given effect in policy and law? How does has this changed over time? Discuss inter-generational negotiations over Meanings of Implications – identity, social inequality
3 outline Introduction Normative expectations and economic orderMoral and legal orderings of financial obligations Child support – Moeata Keil Economic transfers between parents and adult children – a financial obligation Inheritance money - intergenerational wealth transfer
4 Social importance of KINIdentity and belonging [e.g., donor-conceived families, adoptees] & the provision and receipt of bodily and emotional care as well as practical and economic support.
5 The economic and moral order intact heterosexual familiesof intact heterosexual families a normative expectation of reciprocal exchanges of support and assistance Exchanges = family practices even family displays
6 ‘When you are down and out, there is the Bank of Mom and Dad,’’ said Jeanie. Jeanie was a 36-year-old middle-class White woman, talking about the ways in which her parents had helped her over the years. Paul, a middle-class White man, while speaking of the large amounts of financial aid he had given his adult children through the years, stated that his credo was to ‘‘put your money where your love is.’’ These quotes reflect the general expectation in the United States that family members help each other by exchanging goods, money, and services. Descartes, 2006, ;Put your money where your mouth is’ Journal Adult Development, 13:137–147 DOI /s
7 What expectations shape the couple project? How are these expectations reflected at the level of law and policy?
8 Heterosexual couple economyShared productive labour with both partners working full-time = shared contributions and shared finances = often pooling of his and her money gendered to the extent that the labour market remains gendered + Shared reproductive labour Partially degendered, but women still do more conventionally feminised labour and men still do more conventionally masculinised labour; Both continue to hold themselves and be held to account for gendered tasks
9 Sole [masculinised] or partial dual [masculinised primary earner Parenting economy Productive labour Sole [masculinised] or partial dual [masculinised primary earner + feminised secondary earner] income earning is common-place, especially when children are younger Reproductive labour Partially de-gendered, but mothers typically do 2x times the caring labour that fathers do & fathers often seen as helping out with care; other core tasks also typically gendered Masculinised, productive labour in the public sphere generates income that is exchanged with feminised reproductive labour in the private sphere
10 Responsibility, obligation and duty ‘refer to a moral component of relationships and imply that what people actually do is governed quite significantly by beliefs about ‘the proper thing to do’.” [Finch, 1989, Family obligations and social change, 144]
11 Assumptions about family obligationsA widespread consensus exists about family obligations That a hierarchy of obligations to kin exists that is premised on the closeness of kinship ties. That family obligations are gendered.
12 Finch and Mason, 1991, Obligations of kinship, p. 354kin obligations ‘are a set of general or normative principles which need to be applied in a given situation’ rather than being ‘detailed rules of conduct’ Finch and Mason, 1991, Obligations of kinship, p. 354
13 Public statements about the nature and scope of family obligationsPUBLIC MORALITY Public statements about the nature and scope of family obligations Found in policy and law Operate to shape people’s behaviour
14 Pacific mothers negotiations of legally-defined familial obligationsChild Support Pacific mothers negotiations of legally-defined familial obligations
15 Child Support Policy Emerged in a neoliberal socio-political climate that sought to: Use financial contributions from liable parents to offset the costs of welfare support (no pass-on provision) Ensure that non-resident parents take financial responsibility for their children
16 Research Questions 1. What factors do Pacific mothers take into consideration when contemplating whether or not to pursue child support? 2. How is child support money pursued?
17 Child Support arrangementParticipants Participants Ethnicity Age No. of children Income level Living situation Child Support arrangement 1. Samoan 38 years 1 $20, 800 Sole-mother Informal 2. 43 years 2 $100,000 Extended 3. Tongan 46 years $75, 000 Sole-parent 4. Fijian 49 years $24, 000 5. 37 years $22, 000 Formal $16/wk 6. Sam/Tongan 36 years $100, 000 Formal $120/wk 7. Cook Island 29 years $62, 400 Nuclear family Formal $170/wk 8. 22 years $19, 700 No child support 9. 24 years $31, 200
18 Formal child support I tried to do it informally first. I did say to him rather than go through child support let’s work out an arrangement … “you give me a set amount and let’s just do it that way”. Initially he was like “yeah” and then all of a sudden he wasn’t meeting his commitments and responsibilities … and as for money it just became quite ugly. He was basically accusing me of getting money from him for my own benefit, even though I was the primary caregiver and I was getting $50 a week, you know what was that contributing to?! So I decided at that point, this isn’t going to work. I’m going to go down the track of formalising child support … [but] only after an informal arrangement didn’t work. (Samoan/Tongan, formal child support)
19 Informal child supportHe settled on [the amount]. I think he said, “this is what I can afford” … and I just thought, “I’m not going to bother with it”. And initially I didn’t want to use it, to count on something, just in case it never came through every month. So when it comes through I’m like “cool, this is a bonus” … but he decided on [the amount], I didn’t, and I haven’t made a big deal about it … But I’ll take whatever I can. I’d like more but I don’t waste my energy and time on it because I’ve got too many other things to think about … I don’t know if it’s my preference, it’s just the way it’s happened and I haven’t challenged it, it’s not that I don’t want money, because I do. (Tongan, informal child support)
20 Children not socially acknowledged or recognised by former partnersNo child support Children not socially acknowledged or recognised by former partners
21 Dimensions to mothers’ pursuitMaterial dimension Temporal dimension Symbolic dimensions
22 Child support – an obligation?I have no problem telling [my ex-partner] what my son needs … and when he gives me money hell yeah I always take it and I don’t feel bad about it … he tries to make me feel bad about it, but no way … that’s what he should be doing, and if anything he needs to give me way more than he does (Tongan, informal child support)
23 Gendered moral rationalitiesMothers understandings of the ‘right’ thing to do for children (Duncan and Edwards, 1999) Gendered Moral Rationalities Duncan, S., and Edwards, R. (1999). Lone mothers, paid workers, and gendered moral rationalities. New York: Macmillan.
24 Cultural moral rationalitiesMothers understandings of the right thing to do in the context of their Pacific cultural values, particularly cultural notions attached to family obligations “… when I got pregnant we were living [in a small church community in Samoa]… his mother was saying stuff about [my moral reputation] and telling everybody that [their son] was not [my son’s] father. … I would never ask [the father of my son or his family] for money for my son … after everything [they] have said about me and my family, and even my son. … I [am] just happy in the end I [can] say to him I raised my son alone. … they can never say anything about me and my family because they have nothing to do with my son. … For some reason, the little money [I have] stretches. … There [is] never a day where … I [have] no money. I [have] always been blessed that there was always some money to spare.” (Samoan, no child support)
25 Child support Legally-defined obligations are subject to interpretation and negotiation Understandings of family obligations are morally encoded and culturally informed
26 Financial transfers between parents & adult childrenA moral obligation?
27 What is the nature of the obligation parents have towards their adult children?Do they have a duty to offer financial and material support to these children? And if parents do provide economic support should this be in the form of a gift or a repayable loan?
28 How have other macro-economic changes, for example rising costs of housing and changes to mortgage conditions, shaped intergenerational transfers? Are these also seen as obligatory and thus morally inflected? Are the answers to such questions dependent on the circumstances of parents and children as well as linked to differences of ethnicity and culture? What meaning do the various parties involved in these transfers give to them?
29 Ambiguity - Discuss How do you understand this ambiguity?What ideas inform the experience of ambiguity? What role does ambiguity play in the negation of the parent-child relationship, as well as the identities of both parties?
30 Independence and autonomy as valorised signs of (masculinised) adulthoodsolutions discussed by participants to contradiction between ideal of independence and a state of dependency exhibited a state of ambivalence: Justified and defended Experienced discomfort Defined the $ as a loan Descartes, 2006, “Put your money where your mouth is’ Journal Adult Development, 13:137–147
31 interdependence mutual exchanges of supportgivers and receivers of support Descartes, 2006, “Put your money where your mouth is’ Journal Adult Development, 13:137–147