Study title

As part of this project survey data was collected from children age 13-14, their parents, and their grandparents. Questions explored family relationships, and values and practices linked to civil society (including volunteering, political views and engagement, and environmental beliefs). The data from three generations can be linked together to explore the transmission from one generation to the next of those skills, dispositions and values that foster civil society engagement. Within the social science literature, the relationship between the family and civil society is complex and contradictory. While some theories place the family as the cornerstone of civil society, others put the family firmly outside civil society. Indeed, it is often argued that strong family ties weaken, rather than strengthen, the development of a strong civil society. This project sought to address these arguments through some badly-needed empirical evidence of how and whether ‘civic virtues’ are passed down (or otherwise) from one generation to the next.This proposal is for a National Research Centre (WISERD/Civil Society) to undertake a five year programme of policy relevant research addressing Civil Society in Wales. Established in 2008, WISERD provides an 'All-Wales' focus for research and has had a major impact on the quantity and quality of social science research undertaken in Wales. As part of WISERD, WISERD/Civil Society will enable this work to be deepened and sustained through a focused research programme that further develops our research expertise, intensifies our policy impact and knowledge exchange work and strengthens our research capacity and career development activities. WISERD/Civil Society will therefore aim to develop key aspects of the multidisciplinary research initiated during the first phase of WISERD's work to produce new empirical evidence to inform our understanding of the changing nature of civil society in the context of devolved government and processes...