{"title":"Guiding the young child: trajectories of parents’ educational work in Singapore","authors":"Kristina Göransson","doi":"10.1332/204674321X16101167965558","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1332/204674321X16101167965558","url":null,"abstract":"Singapore has established a reputation as a top performer in international student assessment tests and rankings, which is usually understood to be the result of a competitive education system and a distinct Asian parenting culture. Drawing on ethnographic data, the aim of the article is to explore the emotional and moral dimensions of Singaporean parents’ educational work, and how they cope with complex and sometimes contradictory demands in raising their young children. The article is based on interviews and observations with parents of pre- and primary school-aged children. The reasons for focusing specifically on this category of parents was that previous research indicates that parental involvement in children’s education in Singapore is most intense during this period, and that parents everywhere are faced with increasing expectations to attend to their young children’s learning and cognitive development. The findings contest simplistic interpretations of intensive parenting in East Asia, especially when considering the role of social class, gender and generational change.","PeriodicalId":45141,"journal":{"name":"Families Relationships and Societies","volume":"88 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2021-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86963133","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"When equal partners become unequal parents: couple relationships and intensive parenting culture","authors":"C. Faircloth","doi":"10.1332/204674319x15761552010506","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1332/204674319x15761552010506","url":null,"abstract":"Based on longitudinal research with (heterosexual) couples in the UK, this article tracks their experiences of becoming parents for the first time. The suggestion is that new parents are caught in an uncomfortable confluence between competing discourses around ideal relationships and those around ideal parenting. On the one hand, they must be committed to egalitarian ideals about the division of care. On the other, they must be parenting ‘intensively’, in ways which are markedly more demanding for mothers, and which makes paternal involvement more complicated.Drawing on accounts of relationship difficulties, elicited over a five-year period, the article demonstrates the incommensurability of these ideals at physiological, material and ideological levels. As a contribution to the body of work known as parenting culture studies, this article brings, for the first time, an empirical focus to the question of how an ‘intensive’ parenting culture affects couples, rather than just mothers or fathers.","PeriodicalId":45141,"journal":{"name":"Families Relationships and Societies","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2021-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"66311162","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Caring through a screen: caring for kin under lockdown","authors":"R. Benchekroun","doi":"10.1332/204674321x16293510454010","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1332/204674321x16293510454010","url":null,"abstract":"COVID-19 and UK-wide lockdown measures in spring 2020 confined people to their homes, with implications for exchanging care. In a small-scale qualitative study, I examined the impact on individuals’ everyday caring practices with adult kin beyond the home. In this article, drawing on empirical evidence from my study, I argue that lockdown restrictions on in-person interactions and the increased reliance on ICTs shaped interactions and how relationships were experienced. The shift in practices highlighted the significance of the physicality and embodiment of everyday practices of care and perceptions of relationships. I argue that ‘caring through a screen’ under lockdown had impacts on subjective and relational wellbeing. I use the concept of developing co-presence across distance through ICTs to analyse shifts in family caring practices in the unique context of a national lockdown. I show how experiences of the disruption of the physicality of everyday micro-acts of care have shaped perceptions of family relationships.","PeriodicalId":45141,"journal":{"name":"Families Relationships and Societies","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2021-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"66311392","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Kaisu Peltoperä, Tanja M. Vehkakoski, Leena Turja, M. Laakso
{"title":"Positioning flexibly scheduled ECEC in the chain of childcare by parents working non-standard hours","authors":"Kaisu Peltoperä, Tanja M. Vehkakoski, Leena Turja, M. Laakso","doi":"10.1332/204674321x16226480242482","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1332/204674321x16226480242482","url":null,"abstract":"This study examined how Finnish parents working non-standard hours (N=18) positioned institutional flexibly scheduled early childhood education and care (ECEC) as a link in their chain of childcare. Interview data, analysed following the principles of discursive psychology, yielded three discourses on flexibly scheduled ECEC: the discourse of the child’s best interest, the discourse of the labour market, and the discourse of equality of opportunity for the child. Flexibly scheduled ECEC was positioned in these discourses either as the last resort option for childcare, a safe haven for the child, a societal service enabling parents to work during non-standard hours or as a place for children’s learning. It is important to recognise the origins of these discourses and reflect on them to improve ECEC services, so that they meet the demands of safety as a link in the chain of childcare and increase the level of parental satisfaction with them.","PeriodicalId":45141,"journal":{"name":"Families Relationships and Societies","volume":"55 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2021-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"66311705","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Louisa Donald, Rosemary Davidson, Suzanne Murphy, A. Hadley, S. Puthussery, G. Randhawa
{"title":"How young, disadvantaged fathers are affected by socioeconomic and relational barriers: a UK-based qualitative study","authors":"Louisa Donald, Rosemary Davidson, Suzanne Murphy, A. Hadley, S. Puthussery, G. Randhawa","doi":"10.1332/204674321x16321468785082","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1332/204674321x16321468785082","url":null,"abstract":"This article is based on the interviews of nine young, socially disadvantaged fathers from the UK. Young fathers are more likely to experience socioeconomic deprivation and disrupted pathways towards parenthood, which affect their participation in socially accepted trajectories of ‘father involvement’. Whilst this has received some attention in research, studies have largely neglected to examine the lived experiences of such fathers directly. The current article aims to address this gap, building upon the limited body of research that exists exploring the impact of socioeconomic and relational barriers on father involvement. In this study, three interrelated themes demonstrate the cyclical nature of generational disadvantage, reduced socioeconomic circumstances and disrupted relationships, providing a different perspective on the decreased levels of involvement exhibited by young fathers in prior research. The findings also enlighten our understanding of how these fathers can be better supported in policy and practice, thereby contributing to current academic debate.","PeriodicalId":45141,"journal":{"name":"Families Relationships and Societies","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2021-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"66312069","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Lídia Puigvert, Elena Duque, Guiomar Merodio, Patricia Melgar
{"title":"A systematic review of family and social relationships: implications for sex trafficking recruitment and victimisation","authors":"Lídia Puigvert, Elena Duque, Guiomar Merodio, Patricia Melgar","doi":"10.1332/204674321x16358719475186","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1332/204674321x16358719475186","url":null,"abstract":"Sex trafficking is a current, severe and intense global phenomenon. Many studies have made substantial efforts to map the routes and relations between countries of origin, transit, destination, and the methods of recruitment and retention. With a focus on the role of social relationships, for this article, we conducted a literature review using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) to provide further scientific evidence of the elements and processes that push victims – primarily women and girls – into sex trafficking. The findings show that family, intimate relationships, friendships and acquaintances play a critical role in the pre-entry period before sex trafficking. Among these, family violence, abandonment and abuse emerge as severe risk factors, as well as the role of fraudulent intimate relationships. We also include additional social and individual risk factors that, together with the role of family and social relationships, have impacts on potential victims, increasing the likelihood of sex trafficking.","PeriodicalId":45141,"journal":{"name":"Families Relationships and Societies","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2021-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"66312095","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Being a good digital parent: representations of parents, youth and the parent–youth relationship in expert advice","authors":"Glenda Wall","doi":"10.1332/204674321X16146846761768","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1332/204674321X16146846761768","url":null,"abstract":"Social concern about online behaviour and safety of children and youth has increased dramatically in the last decade and has resulted in an abundance of parenting advice on ways to manage and protect children online. The cultural context in which this is happening is one characterised by intensive parenting norms, heightened risk awareness, and growing concerns about the effects of ‘over-parenting’, especially in the teenage years. Using contemporary advice to parents on managing adolescents’ digital experiences, this study investigates the ways that parenting, youth and the youth–parent relationship are depicted. Parental roles, in this material, are portrayed as instrumental and pedagogical while youth are assumed to lack agency and judgement. Intensive parenting expectations are extended as parents face advice to be both highly vigilant agents of surveillance and trusted confidantes of their children, with an overall goal of shaping children’s subjectivity in ways that allow them to become self-governing.","PeriodicalId":45141,"journal":{"name":"Families Relationships and Societies","volume":"22 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2021-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82736427","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Representations of ‘progressive fatherhood’ in postcolonial Zimbabwe: binaries, ambivalences and ambiguities","authors":"S. Mitchell","doi":"10.1332/204674321X16097451930178","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1332/204674321X16097451930178","url":null,"abstract":"The aim of this article is to explore how the Swedish ideal of ‘progressive fatherhood’ is represented in the context of a photo competition and exhibition organised by the Swedish Embassy in postcolonial Zimbabwe. Drawing on Rose’s (2016) method of visual discourse analysis (VDA), the article examines how Zimbabwean fathers are represented as being progressive through both image and text, and the extent to which these representations could be seen to challenge or ‘mimic’ (Bhaba, 1984) the Swedish ideal of ‘progressive fatherhood’. While some of these representations reproduced certain binaries, they also presented the kind of ambivalent, ‘postfeminist’ relationship with gender equality that has been identified in other contexts. Overall, these representations were found to go beyond colonial mimicry by challenging and extending the Swedish ideal of ‘progressive fatherhood’ beyond the context of the middle-class, nuclear family.","PeriodicalId":45141,"journal":{"name":"Families Relationships and Societies","volume":"51 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2021-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"90937073","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Workplace matters: negotiating a sense of entitlement towards taking time off for childcare among Korean fathers working in Sweden","authors":"Yeonju Kim","doi":"10.1332/204674321X16208062367136","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1332/204674321X16208062367136","url":null,"abstract":"A gender-equal leave policy for childcare does not necessarily engender a corresponding sense of entitlement in fathers to actually take leave, but few studies have focused on how fathers develop their sense of entitlement at work. This study explores how Korean fathers, accustomed to a work-centred life, changed their sense of entitlement towards childcare leave while working in a father-friendly country, Sweden. Sixteen Korean fathers’ narratives were analysed under two different work settings in Sweden: about half worked in Swedish companies while the other half worked in Korean-owned companies with branches in Sweden. The findings suggest that the fathers working at Swedish companies developed a stronger sense of entitlement to take childcare leave. Three contexts appeared to influence this development: the conceivability of being absent and putting responsibilities on hold, having a horizontal relationship with superiors (daring to refuse), and the social recognition of a father’s responsibilities as a co-parent.","PeriodicalId":45141,"journal":{"name":"Families Relationships and Societies","volume":"59 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2021-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89157580","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Integration and volunteering: the case of first-generation immigrants to Canada","authors":"A. Ruiz, Lili Wang, F. Handy","doi":"10.1332/204080521x16319931902392","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1332/204080521x16319931902392","url":null,"abstract":"This study investigates the association between the integration of first-generation immigrants and their volunteering. Using data from a Canadian national survey, we examine three dimensions of immigrant integration: professional, psychosocial and political. General volunteering is not significantly related to integration; however, there exists a relationship between the different dimensions of integration and where immigrants choose to volunteer. Thus, the relationship between the type and degree of immigrant integration and volunteering is nuanced; it matters where volunteering occurs.","PeriodicalId":45141,"journal":{"name":"Families Relationships and Societies","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2021-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"66306020","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}