ABSTRACT

Familiar groups, along with other institutions, seek to adapt to their changing circumstances in order to prosper and survive. As the cost of living soars, more adult members of the household seek employment, and individual adults seek additional work. An underlying paradox of social policy is that both "big" and "small" have just claims, but each tends to clobber the other in staking those claims. A generation before Emile Durkheim, Marx lamented the encroachments of industrialism upon the fabric of society, and their consequences for the individual. The just claims of society's large institutions rest upon their ability to provide a valid and worthwhile model for collective interaction throughout society, and upon the net value of the additional socio-economic output derived from the application of that model, as compared with any other available model. Social policy must inform itself of the full range of family/friendship networks and collaborations, so that it may better understand and facilitate productive interaction throughout society.