The Family and Child-Rearing as Forces for Economic Change: Towards Fresh Research Approaches

Abstract

The impact of the family on the economy has been accepted as a general principle by sociologists; it is widely assumed by both parents and politicians that family values, instilled through child-rearing, are a potent force in economy and society; and it has been suggested that changes in family values may be one factor in explaining British economic decline. Yet there has been remarkably little systematic investigation of these influential assumptions.

The objective of this paper is to suggest how this neglect could be remedied. In the first section a theoretical perspective is outlined, and the principal theoretical and empirical contributions which can be drawn from the current literature are discussed: from psychology, economics and anthropology as well as from social history and sociology. The second section considers the findings of the author's current research on the role of family values and differing forms of child-rearing in explaining economic success or failure in fishing communities, and the parallel contrast in the family values of landowners and manufacturing entrepreneurs. The conclusion argues for the investigation of the impact of family values and child-rearing patterns of the economy through a combination of cohort studies of the general population and comparative local community studies, both combining contemporary and retrospective life history data.

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