Doing Good Parenthood

Ideals and Practices of Parental Involvement

Anna Sparrman, Allan Westerling, Judith Lind, Karen Ida Dannesboe, Anna Sparrman, Allan Westerling, Judith Lind, Karen Ida Dannesboe

• Éditeur: Palgrave Macmillan
• Année: 2017
• ISBN:
  9783319467740
• Sujet: Scienze sociali
• Sous-sujet: Sociologia del matrimonio e della famiglia

This edited collection shows that good parenthood is neither fixed nor stable. The contributors show how parenthood is equally done by men, women and children, in and through practices involving different normative guidelines. The book explores how normative layers of parenthood are constituted by notions such as good childhood, family ideals, national public health and educational strategies. The authors illustrate how different versions of parenthood coexist and how complex sets of actions are demanded to fulfil today's expectations of parenthood in Western societies. This interdisciplinary book will be of interest to research scholars in child and family studies, students, experts, social workers, politicians, teachers and parents.

© The Author(s) 2016

Anna Sparrman, Allan Westerling, Judith Lind and Karen Ida Dannesboe (eds.)Doing Good ParenthoodPalgrave Macmillan Studies in Family and Intimate Life10.1007/978-3-319-46774-0_1

Begin Abstract

1. Introduction: Doing Good Parenthood

Judith Lind¹ , Allan Westerling² , Anna Sparrman³ and Karen Ida Dannesboe⁴

(1)

Department of Thematic Studies – Child Studies, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden

(2)

Center for Childhood, Youth & Family Life Research, Department of People and Technology, Roskilde University, Roskilde, Denmark

(3)

Department of Thematic Studies – Child Studies, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden

(4)

Department of Educational Anthropology, School of Education, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark

Judith Lind (Corresponding author)

Email: [email protected]

Allan Westerling

Email: [email protected]

Anna Sparrman

Email: [email protected]

Karen Ida Dannesboe

Email: [email protected]

Abstract

The purpose of this book is to explore in ten empirical chapters how good parenthood is done in different contexts, by different agents. The introductory chapter outlines the theoretical implications of viewing parenthood as a series of practices and our interest in the enactment and negotiation of good parenthood. We argue that the doing of good parenthood should be studied empirically and in context. Therefore, the particularities of Denmark and Sweden as contexts are briefly introduced. Finally, we argue that parenthood is to be understood in relation to childhood, and the doing of good parenthood should be situated in relation to notions of children’s interests and rights. Therefore, the book is anchored in the research fields of both parenting studies and child studies.

Keywords

Good parenthoodChildhoodQualitative methodsParenthoodChildhood studiesDoing parenthoodParenthood-childhood

Judith Lind, Ph.D.,

is Lecturer at the Department of Thematic Studies – Child Studies, Linköping University, Sweden, where she is the director of the Master’s and Ph.D. programmes in Child Studies. Her general research interests concern the relationships between parents, children and the state. She is currently involved in research projects on parental support, adoption and assisted reproduction and has a particular interest in the vetting of would-be parents.

Allan Westerling, Ph.D.,

is Associate Professor at the Department of People & Technology, Roskilde University, Denmark. He is a member and co-founder of the Centre for Childhood, Youth and Family Life Research in this department. He is a social psychologist working across the fields of psychology and sociology. His area of research covers fatherhood, parenthood and family life. Particular interests include the institutionalisation of care under the welfare state, and the consequences of individualisation for family life.

Anna Sparrman, Ph.D.,

is a professor at the Department of Thematic Studies – Child Studies, Linköping University, Sweden. Her general research interests concern norms and values of children and childhood by combining visual culture, child consumption, child culture and child sexuality. She was research leader of the research project “Culture for and by Children” and has recently published The ontological practice of child culture together with her collaborators. Sparrman has a special interest in ethnography and visual research methods.

Karen Ida Dannesboe, Ph.D.,

is Assistant Professor at the Department of Educational Anthropology, School of Education, Aarhus University, Denmark. Central research areas include childhood; relations between children, family and the welfare state; materiality and identity. More specific research interests are children’s everyday lives across institutions, the institutionalisation of childhood, school–family relations and parenthood.

End Abstract

This book is an exploration of parenthood. The overall aim is to study both the ideals and practices of parenthood without separating the two aspects. We do so in ten empirical chapters by analysing how good parenthood is done in ten different contexts, by different agents. Across these chapters, we will investigate the normative layers of parenthood in practice.

We have deliberately chosen to use the term parenthood, rather than parenting, as our focus is not only on practices; it is broader. Our theoretical point of departure is informed by David Morgan’s concept of family practices and his ambition to move “away from ideas of the family as relative static structures or sets of positions or statuses” (Morgan 2011, 6; See also Cheal 2002). Parenthood, in a similar manner, is something that is done. We see it as a series of practices, as something that men, women and children do. This comprises much more than merely the child-rearing practices of parents. Parenthood, we argue, is also done when parents interact with others; for example, professionals like teachers or social workers, with other parents, including co-parents, or grandparents. When parents argue in favour of their strategies, when they negotiate with an ex-partner, when they conform to (or refuse) the demands placed upon them by schools, when they consume goods or choose destinations for family outings, parenthood is being done.

One component of parenthood is the parent’s desire to do a good job according to her/his own standards. In the doing of parenthood in front of an audience (Finch 2007) another component is at play: parents’ desire to be recognised as good parents by others (Blackford 2004; Caputo 2007). In the doing of parenthood in a specific situation, norms are mobilised through parents’ own views of what good parenthood is, what they believe are the parenthood norms of the audience and the audience’s reactions to certain practices. The audience or co-actors such as other parents, children, professionals, politicians, experts and researchers for that matter, also do parenthood. This is an important part of the reasoning behind our choice to use this term rather than parenting.

What are the standards by which parenthood is evaluated? As the analysis will show, good parenthood is not fixed or stable; in practice, it is rather fluid and subject to negotiation. Not only is the meaning of the best interests of the child – often used as a benchmark for the evaluation of parenthood – ambiguous, but the best interests of the child are also not necessarily the only benchmark in play. The normative layers of parenthood are related to ideas about what constitutes a good childhood, family ideals, ideas about children’s development and needs, as well as goals regarding a nation’s public health, education and competitiveness.

When we explore how parenthood is done, we are also exploring how good parenthood is done. We study the contextual and situated practices through which the different actors – parents, children and others – do parenthood, and we also study the normative guidelines through which these practices become meaningful. Doing good parenthood refers to contextual and situated practices through which parents, children and others enact, negotiate and construct the good in good parenthood. Our interests thus include not only the meanings of good parenthood that float to the surface in these practices but also how the positioning of some parenting practices as good is achieved in and through such practices. Doing good parenthood, however, also refers to the doing of parenthood in relation to something that is predefined, or appears to be predefined, as good.

This book presents a broad set of empirically rich chapters to give the reader a detailed and deep understanding of what it means to do good parenthood. Across the chapters, we address the following questions: What does good parenthood come to mean in practice? By whom, where and through what practices is good parenthood defined? Who speaks on behalf of whom? What are the standards by which good parenthood is evaluated? Whose or what interests are emphasised? In all of these questions, the specific national and local contexts within which the practices that constitute the subjects of analyses are set are taken into consideration.

Denmark and Sweden as Political Context

The primary context for our empirical studies are the Danish and Swedish welfare societies. The structures constituted by family policies contribute to shaping the conditions for negotiations of good parenthood, but they are to some extent also the products of such negotiations. Both Denmark and Sweden represent a Scandinavian or universalistic welfare regime and a family policy that can be labelled pro-egalitarian, stressing gender equality and high rates of female employment (Esping-Andersen 1990, 1999). Both countries also have comparatively generous and flexible parental leave programmes, individual taxation of spouses and subsidised childcare (Béland et al. 2014). High levels of employment for both mothers and fathers and high rates of child enrolment in out-of-family childcare naturally limit the amount of time that Danish and Swedish parents spend with their children. Interestingly, parental involvement is still seen as crucial to children’s development, and parents emphasise the value of spending quality time with their children, and preferably as a family, in both Denmark and Sweden. Using the term involved parenthood, Forsberg (2009) shows how Swedish parents strive to be involved in their children’s lives by spending time on as well as with their children (see also Wissö 2012). Similar ideals of parental involvement can be found in Denmark (Dannesboe et al. 2012).

The emphasis on gender equality is part of social and family policies which emphasise individual autonomy. This supports the individualisation and democratisation of family life and comes close to the notion of institutionalised individualism (Beck and Beck-Gernsheim 2002), which is supported by family policy traditions characterised by an individualised relationship between the state and its citizens (including children) rather than by institutional support for the family as a unit or entity. These policies and the individualisation of family life are manifested most clearly through the strong legislative focus on children’s rights. A prerequisite for this kind of individual autonomy has been a strong state, a high degree of trust in the institutions of the state and a relatively high level of acceptance of state intervention in the lives of families (Abrahamson 2010; Berggren and Trägårdh 2015; Wells and Bergnehr 2014).

However, in both countries, family policies have undergone notable changes during the last three decades. The early 1990s marked the beginning of an economic crisis that led to severe cut-backs in state-funded welfare provision, which coincided with a shift towards neoliberal rhetoric. The cuts were ideologically legitimised with the aid of such rhetoric, which emphasised freedom of choice, as opposed to the alleged demand for conformity of previous welfare service provision, and welcomed the introduction of private, market-based alternatives (Lundqvist 2011; Grumløse 2014). Yet, the focus on formal employment for both women and men in Sweden and Denmark has entailed a continued expansion of universal childcare, which continues to distinguish them from countries with liberal welfare models.

Even though the institutional fabric of the Danish and Swedish welfare states share many constitutive elements, there are also differences between the two...