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The social meaning of inherited financial assets: moral ambivalences of intergenerational transfers
Die soziale Bedeutung geerbten Vermögens: moralische Ambivalenzen intergenerationaler Transfers
[journal article]
Abstract What do inherited financial assets signify to heirs and testators and how does this shape their conduct? Based on grounded theory methodology and twenty open, thematically structured interviews with US heirs, future heirs and testators, this article explicates a theoretical account that proposes a m... view more
What do inherited financial assets signify to heirs and testators and how does this shape their conduct? Based on grounded theory methodology and twenty open, thematically structured interviews with US heirs, future heirs and testators, this article explicates a theoretical account that proposes a moral ambivalence as the core category to understand the social meaning of inherited financial assets. In particular, the analysis reveals that the social meaning of inherited assets is a contingent, individual compromise between seeing inherited assets as unachieved wealth and seeing them as family means of support. Being the lifetime achievement of another person, inheritances are, on the one hand, morally dubious and thus difficult to appropriate. Yet in terms of family solidarity, inheritances are "family money," which is used when need arises. Taken from this angle, inheriting is not the transfer of one individual's privately held property to another person, but rather the succession of the social status as support-giver along with the resources that belong to this status to the family's next generation. Heirs need to find a personal compromise between these poles, which always leaves room for interpretation.... view less
Keywords
generation; social relations; meritocracy; money; solidarity; United States of America; affluence; attitude; inheritance; family; morality; assets; ambivalence
Classification
Sociology of Economics
Method
qualitative empirical; empirical; theory formation; basic research
Document language
English
Publication Year
2014
Page/Pages
p. 289-317
Journal
Historical Social Research, 39 (2014) 3
DOI
https://doi.org/10.12759/hsr.39.2014.3.289-317
ISSN
0172-6404
Status
Published Version; peer reviewed