Engaging with uncertainty: studying child and family welfare in precarious times

IF 1.1 3区社会学 Q3 FAMILY STUDIES

Families Relationships and Societies Pub Date : 2023-01-16 DOI:10.1332/204674321x16704251101652

Janet Boddy

{"title":"Engaging with uncertainty: studying child and family welfare in precarious times","authors":"Janet Boddy","doi":"10.1332/204674321x16704251101652","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"We live in a historic period of heightened and intersecting uncertainties. This article draws on Bauman’s (2012) metaphor of ‘liquid modernity’ to discuss the precariousness of family lives and child and family welfare provision in the context of austerity politics in contemporary England, before going on to consider the implications for research and researchers. Contexts of constant uncertainty have ethical and methodological implications for family research, particularly for studies concerned with services for children and families. When precarisation is an instrument of government, we need approaches to understanding ‘what works’ that are fit for liquid modern times: engaging with the complex contingencies of child and family lives and of the systems and services that they encounter, and actively resisting individualising and deficit-focused narratives in the study of child and family welfare. I focus my reflections on England because it is where I live and work, but the considerations I discuss have relevance for any context where the erosion of welfare provision coincides with growing inequality for children and families.","PeriodicalId":45141,"journal":{"name":"Families Relationships and Societies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.1000,"publicationDate":"2023-01-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"1","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Families Relationships and Societies","FirstCategoryId":"90","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1332/204674321x16704251101652","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"FAMILY STUDIES","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 1

Abstract

We live in a historic period of heightened and intersecting uncertainties. This article draws on Bauman’s (2012) metaphor of ‘liquid modernity’ to discuss the precariousness of family lives and child and family welfare provision in the context of austerity politics in contemporary England, before going on to consider the implications for research and researchers. Contexts of constant uncertainty have ethical and methodological implications for family research, particularly for studies concerned with services for children and families. When precarisation is an instrument of government, we need approaches to understanding ‘what works’ that are fit for liquid modern times: engaging with the complex contingencies of child and family lives and of the systems and services that they encounter, and actively resisting individualising and deficit-focused narratives in the study of child and family welfare. I focus my reflections on England because it is where I live and work, but the considerations I discuss have relevance for any context where the erosion of welfare provision coincides with growing inequality for children and families.

查看原文本刊更多论文

参与不确定性:在不稳定时期研究儿童和家庭福利

我们生活在一个不确定性加剧和相互交织的历史时期。本文借鉴鲍曼(2012)的“流动现代性”比喻，讨论当代英国紧缩政治背景下家庭生活、儿童和家庭福利提供的不稳定性，然后再考虑对研究和研究人员的影响。持续不确定的背景对家庭研究，特别是对有关儿童和家庭服务的研究具有伦理和方法上的影响。当不稳定是政府的一种工具时，我们需要理解适合流动的现代社会的“有效方法”:参与儿童和家庭生活以及他们遇到的系统和服务的复杂突发事件，并在儿童和家庭福利研究中积极抵制个体化和以赤字为中心的叙述。我把我的思考集中在英国，因为这是我生活和工作的地方，但我所讨论的考虑与任何背景都有相关性，在这种背景下，福利供应的侵蚀与儿童和家庭日益严重的不平等同时发生。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

Families Relationships and Societies FAMILY STUDIES-

CiteScore

2.10

自引率

14.30%

发文量

期刊介绍： Families, Relationships and Societies (FRS) is a vibrant social science journal advancing scholarship and debates in the field of families and relationships. It explores family life, relationships and generational issues across the life course. Bringing together a range of social science perspectives, with a strong policy and practice focus, it is also strongly informed by sociological theory and the latest methodological approaches. The title ''Families, Relationships and Societies'' encompasses the fluidity, complexity and diversity of contemporary social and personal relationships and their need to be understood in the context of different societies and cultures. International and comprehensive in scope, FRS covers a range of theoretical, methodological and substantive issues, from large scale trends, processes of social change and social inequality to the intricacies of family practices. It welcomes scholarship based on theoretical, qualitative or quantitative analysis. High quality research and scholarship is accepted across a wide range of issues. Examples include family policy, changing relationships between personal life, work and employment, shifting meanings of parenting, issues of care and intimacy, the emergence of digital friendship, shifts in transnational sexual relationships, effects of globalising and individualising forces and the expansion of alternative ways of doing family. Encouraging methodological innovation, and seeking to present work on all stages of the life course, the journal welcomes explorations of relationships and families in all their different guises and across different societies.