The Ethical Turn in Family Studies

Abstract

Some readers might find the title of this chapter slightly strange. It seems to suggest that a linking of family practices with ethical concerns is something of recent origin whereas it might be supposed that morality has rarely been far away from family living. Repeatedly, it might be argued, politicians, religious leaders and moral entrepreneurs of all kinds have made connections between family and morality. Measures of family breakdown may be taken to be indices of a wider moral decline and, equally, a weakening of family ties may be seen as contributing to a wider social and moral breakdown. So what is new?