Obligations of kinship in contemporary Britain: is there normative agreement?

This article explores the extent to which there is normative agreement in contemporary Britain about the 'proper thing to do' for relatives. Using quantitative survey data generated using the 'vignette technique', the authors assess how far certain policy and sociological assumptions about appropriate kinship obligations hold up to empirical scrutiny. They argue that there is not a straightforward consensus about a set of normative principles but that it is possible to identify patterns of normative agreement. These vary more in line with the circumstances specified in the vignettes than with the social characteristics of the respondents. There is more evidence of a consensus over procedures - that is what factors people should take into account in working out the proper thing to do for relatives - than over the substance of what should be done. The authors conclude that people do not carry around with them stable sets of values and meanings about obligations to kin, but construct them when they have to out of various materials available.