Chapter 8: Unpicking political communitarianism.

This chapter explores the connection between family and community in relation to politics and policy in Great Britain. The rhetorical effects and the putative conceptual connection between family and community are considered to be party mystified. The two concepts are in many contexts code for each other, and their constant reference to each other obscures how social institutions and social phenomena are related. The relation between family and community are often linked to political issues such as communitarianism. A critical examination of communitarian political discourse exemplifies the relationship between political speech and political theory. Political speech often garbles political theory, while, political theory itself is inevitably a development of ideas, values, practices and projects that are immanent in practical political and social speech and practice. Communitarians insist upon the social nature of the individual and in their value commitments are guided by the principle that social relationships and networks must be such that they can support the circulation and exchange of crucial social goods. Conceptualization of family as community is liable to obscure patterns and relations of conflict within families. The point of emphasizing family and community is to counter the individuals and families philosophy of the New Right, to insist that there is a social whole to be considered, a wider context that individuals must take into account when making decisions.