The uncertain business of raising citizens

This chapter evaluates all of those factors that might complicate the straightforward sharing of values and practices between different family members. The family is widely regarded as a socialising agent, and parents, in particular, are seen to play a pivotal role in providing their children with a framework for interpreting and navigating the social world. However, there are manifold other events, relationships, and experiences that combine to shape an individual's perspective of, and engagement with, civil society. Drawing on survey, interview, and family tree data, the chapter considers the range of influences that participants identified, highlighting some of the things that might frustrate the intergenerational sharing of values and practices. It also looks at variation and difference within families, investigating how the bringing together of two previously unconnected families through marriage or partnership is negotiated in relation to social and political perspectives.

The upward transmission of civic ‘virtues’

This chapter explores the significance of younger generations in changing their parents' and grandparents' perspectives, moving beyond common conceptualisations of the one-directional sharing of values and practices from older to younger generations. Drawing on the interview data, it focuses on the synergistic learning experiences described by parents and grandparents. The chapter looks at how conversations with younger generations can prompt reflection on deeply held values and attitudes, and can contribute to a shift in perspectives. Most notably, it details how the rising prominence of environmental concerns has been brought to the attention of older family members, and how environmentalism is brought into the family home via knowledges and practices learnt by younger family members in the classroom. The chapter also considers how discussions with children and grandchildren present an opportunity for parents and grandparents to 'update' their perspectives on gender and sexuality.

Keeping the faith? Secularisation, the family and civic engagement

This chapter explains that it is in the area of religious practice that the uncertainties of intergenerational transmission are most clearly demonstrated. All available evidence indicates that religious affiliation is inherited from parents. However, that is only part of the story. The chapter focuses on the precariousness of religious transmission and seeks to explore: first, what family and lifecourse events appear to disrupt an inheritance of faith; and, second, what the implications are for young people's civic engagement. In addition to examining the levels and processes of the intergenerational transmission of faith (or its absence), it discusses how religious affiliation is reflected in particular kinds of associational membership, levels of volunteering, and other kinds of social activism.