Introduction: Responsible Parents and a Responsible State
| Author | Heather Keating,Craig Lind |
| Date | 01 March 2008 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6478.2008.00411.x |
| Published date | 01 March 2008 |
JOURNAL OF LAW AND SOCIETY
VOLUME 35, NUMBER 1, MARCH 2008
ISSN: 0263-323X, pp. 1±2
Introduction: Responsible Parents and a Responsible State
Craig Lind* and Heather Keating*
What is the relationship between family responsibility, parenting, and the
state? We know that the latter half of the twentieth century saw the advent of
the idea of the responsible parent (replacing parental rights). But did it also
create the responsible state? And if so, what is the relationship between the
responsible state, responsible parents, and the well-being of children? Is the
state an integral part of the provision of responsible care for children or is it
merely the vehicle through which responsible parenting is encouraged or,
indeed, compelled? This collection of essays sets out to explore these
questions.
In seeking answers to questions like these, it appears that much turns on
the political transformation that took place in the United Kingdom a decade
ago. When the new Labour government replaced the successive Con-
servative administrations that had governed for almost twenty years, they
invested the idea of family responsibility ± both parental and state ± with
new meanings. But these new meanings, while frequently articulated by
politicians, were rarely clear to those who worked with families. Nor were
the (political) ambitions for family responsibility founded on either solid
empirical research (into their capacity to succeed) or careful ideological
analysis. We are, therefore, living through an era in which there is swift
development and implementation of policy on issues of family respon-
sibility, but seldom any rigorous analysis of that policy before its
implementation. Indeed, there is almost a religious fervour with which
new policy is introduced and old policy expanded. The state seems to have
found its purpose ± its responsibility ± for family life. We need to reflect on
whether it has done well to do so.
1
ß2008 The Author. Editorial organization ß2008 Cardiff University Law School. Published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd,
9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA
*School of Law, University of Sussex, Essex House, Falmer, Brighton BN1
9QQ, England
C.Lind@sussex.ac.uk h.m.keating@sussex.ac.uk
Most of the essays in this collection were first presented as papers at a symposium held at
the University of Sussex in September 2006. They are part of a larger project in which we
have been exploring ideas of family responsibility. Another volume of essays (J.C.
Bridgeman, H.M. Keating, and C. Lind, eds., Responsibility, Law and the Family) will be
published by Ashgate in 2008.
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