ABSTRACT
The preceding chapters in this book have all been concerned to trace the historical conflicts and constructions that shaped emerging conceptions of the British nation and its people in the context of industrialization and urbanization. They have considered the ways in which these conflicts, and the discourses to which they gave rise, led to the identification of particular groups and issues as ‘social problems’ and to the forms of inclusion in, and exclusion from, welfare practices. Central to these processes was the family-both as an ideal and as a key locus of social relationships. Families and family members have been central to the issues discussed throughout this book-whether this be as an ‘ideal form’ for nation and empire; the philanthropic work of women who hailed from families defined as normative; the children of working-class ‘minority’ families; or unemployed husbands and fathers. ‘The family’ has, then, been central to the struggles over, and constructions of, social problems and the welfare sites and practices which have emerged to deal with these. In this chapter I want to show the ways in which the family has continued to play a pivotal role in debates about, and contestations over, welfare and that, just as in the nineteenth century, the construction of a particular family form as a social problem carries with it wider social concerns and anxieties.
