Publisher's Synopsis
Dependency is commonly conceptualized in terms of separate problems or age groups ? focussing mainly on finance. Each problem becomes the centre of intense political or gender debate. Beryl Day examines these different approaches, by way of case illustrations and research from a number of disciplines and argues that such fragmentation hinders the understanding of dependency and its place in society. She proceeds to shift the focus from money to time, and from separate problems to a concept of dependency. In the process, dependency is revealed as a complex set of relationships ? between individuals, families, groups and the State. The book concludes with a model suggesting steps by which dependency may be theorized as a social relation and with a challenge to researchers in each discipline involved to pursue the necessary interactive process further.
