Kinship and Cohort in an Aging Society is an edited volume of reviews, critical reflections and empirical research that follow the intellectual contributions of Vern Bengtson. In their introduction, Silverstein and Giarrusso state that the 15 chapters map ‘major thematic areas to which Bengtson has contributed’ (p. 2): Family connections, Grandparents, Generations and cohorts, Religion and families, and Global, cross-national and cross-ethnic concerns. The volume is a fitting tribute to a fine scholar. As Antonucci says in her preface to the book, throughout his career, Bengtson has been a major player in the evolution of family scholarship.
The thematic organisation of the book is a useful guide to readers with particular interests in broad areas addressed in the volume. Some of the most important conceptual debates in family scholarship are addressed in the Family Connections (Part I) and Generations and Cohorts (Part III). Together they include debates and analyses on core family theoretical issues of solidarity and interdependence as well as age, period and cohort influences on families. The section on Grandparents (Part II) provides insights into the involvement of older family members in the lives of their grandchildren and into grandparent–grandchild relationships in the US context. Global and Cross-national chapters (Part V) set family scholarship within an international perspective and are a welcome addition to the global families agenda which is part of the International Association on Gerontology's Global Social Initiative on Ageing (2014). Religion and Families (Part IV) addresses generational connections in religious context – a discourse that is especially central to families in the United States of America (USA).
Introductions by the editors provide overviews of the set of chapters in each section and help considerably in pulling together themes across the chapters. The Foreword provides a context for Bengtson's work while the Introduction sets out the intellectual traditions and paradigms that form the substantive chapters. Together, these efforts have created a volume of work that is thoughtful and well-connected: not an easy undertaking with an edited volume.
Chapters in Part I address solidarity as a feature of family relationships. Suitor and Pillemer (Chapter 1) study favouritism by using constructs of functional and affectual solidarity. Remle and O'Rand (Chapter 2) use economic transfers within families to understand family solidarity across diverse family arrangements. Knipscheer and van Tilburg conduct social network analyses to understand better interdependence between sibling and parental ties in later life.
Chapters in Part II consider the question of ‘how the changing demographic landscape has influenced the involvement of grandparents in the lives of adolescent and young adult children’ (p. 77). Burton et al. (Chapter 4) consider grandmothers in rural families characterised by multiple partner fertility, while Taylor et al. (Chapter 5) report on conditions under which grandparents enact a mentoring role. Given the high level of interest in the roles of grandparents in the changing demographies of Asia and Africa, a global perspective on grandparenting would have been a welcome addition. Generations and Cohorts (Part III) sets out what the editors call the vexing methodological problem of distinguishing age, period and cohort in understanding families. Alwin (Chapter 6) uses two US data-sets to disentangle generational concepts, while Biggs and Lowenstein (Chapter 7) focus on the conceptual, employing the metaphor of ‘generational intelligence’ to link family identity and interaction. Johnson's elegant chapter on biography and generation (Chapter 8) highlights the importance of the intersection of social history and individual biography.
For readers from outside the USA, the section on Religion and Families (Part IV) is best read as an example of a family cultural context. Achenbaum (Chapter 9) notes that the USA remains faith-based: making that point in the overview to Part IV would have emphasised the importance of this national context. Putney et al. (Chapter 10) state that religion is a useful framework for understanding a family's identity, while Lincoln et al. (Chapter 11) connect religion with ethnic background, tracing the history of research on the importance of family and religion in the lives of African Americans.
Global and Cross-national Aging (Part V) challenges the ‘crisis of global aging’ (Marshall, Chapter 12, p. 272) and its impact on families. Transnational labour migration (Marshall, Chapter 12), lack of family ‘cultural rulebooks (Dannefer and Siders, Chapter 13) and differing social contracts across welfare states (Marcum and Treas, Chapter 14) all affect family forms and interactions. Markides et al.'s (Chapter 15) evaluation of Mexican American families as warm and supportive towards older family members is an example of the importance of deconstructing discourses about family supportiveness across world regions. Given the immense diversity of global family issues, references in this section (and throughout the book) to ‘families’ rather than ‘the family’ would have been welcome.
This book should be part of the reference collections of scholars who are interested in the intellectual traditions and current debates around core family constructs such as solidarity and generation; around family contexts including population ageing and ethnicity; and around the relevance of these ideas to families in later life. For readers who know the fine tradition of US scholarship related to the work of Bengtson, this book will become a classic reference volume.
