Abstract
While the extended family has been widely studied in France, and several major surveys have focused on relationships and exchanges between family members in France and Europe, grandparents have long been neglected by the research community. Yet data from the Biographies et entourage survey, and the detailed life histories of 80 respondents reveal the importance of grandparents in individuals’ lives. Their roles are very diverse, with some grandparents taking full charge of their grandchildren’s upbringing, and others living under the same roof as the parents; with some providing “close protection”, while others maintain a certain distance or even lose all ties with the family. Contrary to the affirmations of certain American and French researchers, it is not the new role of the “doting” grandparent that represents modernity. Rather, grandparents are a symbol of continuity rather than novelty, with the baby-boom generations continuing to assume their grandparental role, as did their parents and forebears. With the rise of individualism, one might assume that these generations give priority to their professional and social networks, with the family taking secondary importance. Their modernity lies in the fact that they can invest in both.
This chapter was first published in French in Mémoire et démographie, regards croisés au Sud et au Nord, Richard Marcoux and J. Dion (eds.), 2009, Québec, Presses de l’Université Laval, coll. “Cahiers du CIEQ”, pp. 260–270.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
INSEE, Enquête sur les réseaux de sociabilité (1990); INED, Proches et parents survey (1990); CNAV, Trois generations survey (1992).
- 2.
The 1991 issue of Annales de démographie historique, devoted to grandparents and elders, includes an article on the art of being a grandmother in the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (by Jean-Pierre Bois, 1991), as well as an article on yesterday’s grandfathers, also from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries (by Madeleine Foisil, 1991), in which a number of models – in particular the grandfather in the context of family continuity, the grandfather in and of himself, and the made-to-measure grandfather – are presented.
- 3.
Regarding the situation in England, see the latest works by Steven Ruggles on the nineteenth century, the works of Laslett, and the works of Young and Willmott (1957).
- 4.
The question that was asked, namely “Apart from these individuals, are there any others – friends, family members and in-laws, colleagues, etc. – who have been or who are important to you, positively or negatively?”, aimed to avoid restricting the entourage to the family sphere, so that other circles of sociability and influence, such as networks of friends or colleagues, neighbours, etc. could be included.
- 5.
Excerpts from the open questions in the Biographies et entourage quantitative questionnaire.
- 6.
The following quotes are taken from the qualitative interviews.
References
Attias-Donfut, C., & Segalen, M. (1998). Grands-parents : la famille à travers les générations. Paris: Éditions Odile Jacob.
Attias-Donfut, C., Segalen, M., & Lapierre, N. (2002). Le nouvel esprit de famille. Paris: Éditions Odile Jacob.
Bois, J.-P. (1991). L’art d’être grand-mère, au xvii e-xix e siècle. Annales de démographie historique, 7–19.
Bonvalet, C., & Ogg, J. (2007). Measuring family support in Europe. London: Southern Universities Press.
Burguière, A., Klapisch-Zuber, C., Segalen, M., & Zonabend, F. (Eds.). (1986). Histoire de la famille, I. Mondes lointains, mondes anciens, II. Le choc des modernités. Paris: Armand Colin.
Cichelli-Pugeault, O., & Cicchelli, V. (1998). Les théories sociologiques de la famille. Paris: La Découverte, coll. “Repères”.
Clément, C., & Bonvalet, C. (2005). Familles recomposées et ancrage résidentiel : le rôle de la résidence secondaire. Espaces et sociétés, numéro 120–121, pp. 79–97.
Collectif. (1975). Finie la famille ? Traditions et nouveaux rôles. Paris: Autrement.
Comte, A. (1995 [1839]). Cours de philosophie positive. Paris: Flammarion.
Cooper, D. (1972). Mort de la famille. Paris: Seuil.
de Singly, F. (1991). La famille : état des savoirs. Paris: La Découverte.
de Singly, F. (1993a). Comment définir la famille contemporaine? Études statistiques, 4, 31–39.
de Singly, F. (1993b). Sociologie de la famille contemporaine. Paris: Nathan.
de Tocqueville, A. (1835). De la démocratie en Amérique. Paris: Flammarion.
Durkheim, E. (1892). La famille conjugale. In E. Durkheim (Ed.), 1975, Le sens commun. Textes III : fonctions sociales et institutions. Paris: Éditions de Minuit.
Durkheim, E. (1975). Le sens commun. Textes III : fonctions sociales et institutions. Paris: Éditions de Minuit.
Foisil, M. (1991). Grands-pères de jadis xvii e-xix e siècles. Quelques modèles. Annales de démographie historique, 51–63.
Gokalp, C. (1978). Le réseau familial. Population, 33(6), 1077–1094.
Gourdon, V. (2001). Histoire des grands-parents. Paris: Perrin.
Le Bras, H. (1973). Parents, grands-parents, bisaïeux. Population, 28(1), 9–38.
Lelièvre, E., & Vivier, G. (2001). Evaluation d’une collecte à la croisée du quantitatif et du qualitatif, l’enquête Biographies et entourage. Population, 56(6), 1043–1074.
Lelièvre, E., Vivier, G., & Tichit, C. (2008). Between socially-instituted parental relationships and elective ones: A retrospective analysis of parent figures in France from 1930 to 1965. Population, English Edition, 63(2), 209–238.
Parsons, T. (1943). The kinship system of the contemporary United States. American Anthropologist, 45 pp. 22–38.
Pitrou, A. (1978). Vivre sans famille. Toulouse: Privat.
Roussel, L. (1976). La famille après le mariage des enfants : les relations entre générations. Population, 31(6), 1195–1206.
Stone, L. (1977). The family, sex and marriage in England. 1500–1800. New York: Harper & Row.
Théry, I. (Ed.). (1995). Recomposer une famille, des rôles et des sentiments. Paris: Éditions Textuel.
Théry, I. (1998). Couple, filiation et parenté aujourd’hui. Le droit face aux mutations de la famille et de la vie privée. Paris: Éditions Odile Jacob.
Weber, F. (2002). Pour penser la parenté contemporaine. In D. Debordeaux & R. Strobel (Eds.), Les Solidarités familiales en questions : entraide et transmission (Vol. 34, pp. 73–106). Paris: Maison des Sciences de l’Homme, coll. “Droit et société”.
Young, M., & Willmott, R. (1957). Family and kinship in East London. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding authors
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Bonvalet, C., Lelièvre, É. (2016). Grandparents: From Neglect to Idolization. In: Bonvalet, C., Lelièvre, E. (eds) Family Beyond Household and Kin. INED Population Studies. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24684-0_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24684-0_7
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-24682-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-24684-0
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)