Abstract
In May 2012, publicising a new government scheme to provide parenting classes, the British Prime Minister David Cameron declared that ‘parents are nation-builders’.1 The initiative followed widespread youth rioting in London and other English cities the previous summer, sparking the same debates and anxieties over the socialisation of young people as followed the 2005 youth riots in the Paris banlieues. In 2016, states across Europe continue to grapple with a responsibility to protect children while increasingly emphasising the importance of parental choice and duty. Most recently, issues of parental responsibility, national loyalty and generational conflict have again come to the fore amidst alarm over the feared radicalisation of young Muslims, following the departure of hundreds of young people from across Europe to join jihadi groups in Syria and elsewhere.
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Notes
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Barron, H., Siebrecht, C. (2017). Introduction: Raising the Nation. In: Barron, H., Siebrecht, C. (eds) Parenting and the State in Britain and Europe, c. 1870-1950. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-34084-5_1
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