Before the state becomes involved in funding and managing welfare, and in low-income societies generally, intergenerational relations and other social network members are key providers of accommodation, income and instrumental support to older people of reduced capacities. By contrast, in contemporary countries with the highest standards of living and extensive state welfare, an older person's housing and income are largely independent of kin contributions, but the closest same-generation and descendent relatives are predominant providers of emotional and affirmational support to the majority, and of personal and intimate care (although not of nursing and medical care) to older people with functional limitations. The result in the richest countries is that the boundaries and complementary roles of informal and formal carers become a contentious and fiscally-important public-policy arena. Intergenerational relations are therefore critical influences on the material standard of life of frail older people in low income societies, on the quality of life of frail and dependent older people in high income societies, and on personal concern, support and care for the sick and disabled in all societies.

There is of course much more to consider than these functional differentiations. All societies have moral codes and normative expectations for the protection, nurture and support of dependent people, and in some they are backed by statutes and enforcement. Gerontology – and social science and social history – have only just begun to tackle the fundamental question of whether variant codes and practices are intrinsic to ‘the culture’, specifically its religious and humanistic precepts, or are themselves ‘functionalist’ in that they change with socio-economic transformations. Will Roman Catholic southern Europe always sustain more multi-generation households than the Protestant north? Will East Asian societies always sustain substantial material support to elderly parents from their adult children? The issue raises provocative questions. Could it be that in societies with the strongest normative codes regarding intergenerational support, there is, or has been, a pervasive problem of non-compliance and the neglect of weak older people?

Isabella Aboderin's highly original book is a valuable contribution to our understanding of the societal determinants and dynamics of intergenerational relations in the support of older people. Developed from a doctoral thesis, it reports a bold retrospective investigation of change over time in the support and care of older people, thoroughly reviews the now substantial conceptual and empirical literature on inter-generational relations, and critically engages with pertinent international ‘declarations’ and policy recommendations. At the core of the work is a study of the life courses of three successive generations of people living in Ghana's largest city, Accra. Aboderin conducted ‘oral history’ interviews during 1997–98 with 51 dyads of an older person and adult child, and in some cases also with a grandchild. The central question asked was, ‘why did you (or do you now) support your parents?’ The sample was stratified by gender, income and the two principal ethnic groups, the Ga and Akan (p. 58).

Chapter 4 synthesises the findings about ‘support in the past’, that is during the late 1930s to 1960s. A small percentage of the reported informants' quotations indicate the richness of the material. ‘It was mostly food that children gave to their older parents’, ‘most people depended on local herbs’, ‘my uncle's wife used to wash her … and give her something to eat, but, you know, people didn't spend any time with her’, ‘all of us were living away so we used to look after them financially, we sent them money regularly’, ‘not that we used to discuss what to give our mother … I didn't know how much my brothers were giving to my mother’, and ‘because of the extended family there was always someone, so even if the old person had no children it never happened that they were completely left alone with nobody there to help them’. The picture that emerges is one of a very low standard of living (but adequate subsistence), an effective system of shared responsibility among extended kin, the low ‘opportunity costs’ of support (in a non-waged economy), and of powerful moral and ‘fair exchange’ precepts that generated and regulated the support.

In the author's distillation, ‘early Ghanaian society was kinship based, and dominated by small-scale subsistence agriculture … (but) colonial rule, formal education, Christianity and a cash economy at the turn of 19th century wrought profound changes, … inter-ethnic trade and interaction grew. Individuals, able to sell their labour everywhere, were no longer entirely dependent on lineage patrimony of property. Kin group cohesion and lines of authority were affected and massive migration ensued, … especially by those with education to urban centres’ (pp. 55–6). The book skilfully traces the connections between macro-societal transformations and the changing forms and dynamics of cross-generational exchanges, with careful attention to the accommodation of change into the still strong Christian faith. The starting point is that, ‘all the older generation informants asserted that “the adequacy of support had declined in recent decades”’ (p. 107). Aboderin asked to what extent and why.

The informants described the erosion of the extended family and the decline of monetary transfers. As one said, ‘now everybody eats in their own corner’ (meaning ‘home’ and that there is less sharing). Aboderin summarises the changes as follows: ‘the level of support provided by adult children has declined, … the older respondents frequently remarked that the support they receive is insufficient, … (there is) an increasing incidence of non-support (and a) decreased capacity to provide support, … often explained with reference to the greater priority attached to children's needs’ (p. 112–7). There is now a ‘normative hierarchy of generational priorities’. The evidence and the author's interpretations are consistently compelling. On the changed attitudes and practices of filial obligation, in the previous generation ‘the lines of obligation were characterized by an “unequal” or skewed contract in which a child's “contractual duty” to support aged parents (and parents' concomitant entitlement to such support) existed irrespectively of parents' prior fulfilment of their contractual obligations to support the child to the best of their ability. Parents, in other words, were the privileged party. Today, a differently framed contract is emerging: one in which, in the true sense of a contract, parents' claim to support is contingent on their fulfilment of their prior duties to the child. … The dominant principle underpinning this new order is … the norm of reciprocity’ (p. 132). This nuanced discussion of changed normative views is admirable, but not all of the author's further interpretations were convincing.

On occasion, Aboderin was arguably too ready to accept the informants' explanations and generalisations, and some of her conclusions are best seen as hypotheses for further research. One summary statement holds that, ‘in contrast to the past, aged parents today no longer receive or are guaranteed support by virtue of the position as parents' (p. 122)’, which is surely too categorical. The informants' accounts evince the ‘abandonment’ entailed by a child's migration to the city and instances of ‘inadequate’ or measly support during the middle decades of the 20th century. Moreover, the methodological problem of retrospective accounts, that it is impossible to identify selective reporting and bias, is hardly discussed. In plain terms, one senses that in all societies, in matters of parent-child relations, many uncritically repeat the perhaps self-reassuring notion that ‘things are worse than they used to be’. Aboderin is a keen theoriser but is not deeply concerned with verification.

This superb study makes manifestly clear that the waged economy has radically changed the needs of and demands upon Ghanaian households (as for children's education), and increased the prevalence of nuclear households and their dependence on cash income. It is also clear that the extended family's relative contribution to collective social protection has declined, although it is unclear whether ‘social protection’ now entails levels of support and care that the extended family ever has or ever could supply. Isabella Aboderin's book is strongly recommended for all gerontologists who are interested in variations in older people's position in society by level of development, cultural inheritance and religious faith. It is not only an original and stimulating research report, but contains rich conceptual formulations that call out for critical discussion. The book should and surely will stimulate much debate and many replications in other settings.