Introduction

This chapter considers some of the challenges raised by the development of globalisation for understanding changes to family life. Debates around the theme of globalisation became influential in the social sciences during the 1990s, notably in sociology and political science (Held et al, 1999). Subsequently, this work was to broaden out with extensive discussions both in social policy (George and Wilding, 2002) and social gerontology (Estes and Phillipson, 2002; Baars et al, 2006). Globalisation has now become an influential force in the construction of old age, notably so in the framing of social and economic policies designed to manage and regulate population ageing. Research on ageing can no longer be confined to local or national cultures, shaped as these are by a wider transnational context, with international organisations (such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund) and cross-border migrations creating new conditions and environments that influence the lives of older people.

The main argument developed in this chapter is that the phenomenon of globalisation raises important new concerns for understanding family life in old age. In general, the focus on globalisation confirms the importance of locating individuals within the orbit of social and economic structures. Those are increasingly subject to forces lying beyond the boundaries of the nation state. This chapter will, first, summarise the main approaches to understanding globalisation within sociology and social policy; second, review the relevance of this approach for understanding family life; third, assess the importance of transnational families as a feature of global change; finally, it will review implications for social policy that come out of the rise of international migration.

Defining globalisation

Globalisation, it is argued in this chapter, will have a major influence on the future of family life – across all age groups. The term globalisation is taken to refer to those mechanisms, actors and institutions that link together individuals and groups across different nation states. David Held et al define globalisation in the following terms: