Battle for the Family

The solution to every social problem these days seems to be to look at the family. One proposed strategy to prevent knife crime is to introduce parenting lessons; every six-year-old in the country is being weighed and measured - with letters sent home to inform parents if their child is overweight. Why has the family become such a focus of social policy, and how credible are the theories behind such interventions? What effect does it have on families, and society as a whole, when parents are deemed to be responsible for everything, while seemingly trusted to do nothing right?

 
 Saturday 1 November 2008

10.30am to 12.00pm Seminar Space
Professionalising parenting

 
 Saturday 1 November 2008

1.30pm to 3.00pm Seminar Space
The problem with families

 
 Saturday 1 November 2008

3.30pm to 5.00pm Seminar Space
Is 'poor parenting' a class issue?

Produced by
Academy of Ideas

 Festival Buzz

"For one weekend in the year, in the centre of London, it's as if ideas matter, it's as if the world really can be made a better place through the free and energetic exercise of reason."
Austen Ivereigh, Catholic commentator