Introduction

In recent years, the issue of intergenerational solidarity and relations between generations has gained a lot of attention in academic spheres (for example, Albertini et al, 2007; Saraceno, 2008). The interest of scholars has emerged in response to demographic changes (such as longevity, decreased fertility) and initiated from public concern. This is a broad research area and contains different levels, ranging from intergenerational family relations at the micro level to the wide spectrum of relations between generations at the macro level. However, these two levels are closely related: intergenerational relations within families are formed and shaped by the cultural context and the position of different generations in society. Thus, if we consider intergenerational solidarity in the framework of the welfare state, three actors emerge: families, market and the state. In recent decades, mostly in western European countries, the interplay between state interventions and family obligations in caregiving has gained much attention (Kohli, 1999; Attias-Donfut and Wolff, 2000; Daatland and Herlofson, 2003; Albertini et al, 2007; Saraceno, 2008; Blome et al, 2009). As stated by Martin (2004, p 14), ‘the “family question” has thus become a component of the “social question” and indeed occupies an increasingly important place in the debate on the crisis and evolution of social protection systems’. This raises the question of allocations between private and public protection, and the respective roles of the state, the market and the family in welfare provision to individuals.

This chapter is based on the idea that different types of welfare state and kinship regimes shape and maintain the cultural, normative and practical context in which intergenerational relations take place. According to Saraceno (2008), welfare state policies are to a large degree not only policies of age and of obligations between social generations, for example, through pension and school systems, but they are also forms of regulating obligations within family generations, through measures concerning maternity and parental leaves, child benefits, access to education, to social assistance and social care, and through legal definitions of ‘family obligations’. Thus, the welfare state frames the context in which intergenerational relations are embedded. However, the higher involvement of the welfare state in welfare provision to individuals may challenge the institution of the family as a caregiver and, as a backlash, the ties between the family members and the generations they represent will get weaker.