ABSTRACT
This chapter sets out the approach and framework that was employed to empirically investigate the nature and causes of the recent declines in old age material family support in urban Ghana. To date, the Western literature provides virtually no empirically grounded accounts of the basis of support in the past— in preindustrial or industrializing times. The first "model" portrayed support to aged parents as being provided out of a natural sense of love and affection on the part of children— a voluntary motivation arising from the individual parent-child relationship. A second "model", which also saw filial support as driven by voluntary motives arising from the child-parent relationship, emphasized the importance of "reciprocity"— a sense of gratitude and indebtedness on the part of children for what parents had done for them. The third model, in clear contrast, and put forward as a critique of the others, emphasized the key role of structural obligations—rather than personal bonds—in compelling support.
