Complicating masculinities: on fatherhood and care

violence in healthcare contexts — and of mothers doing everything possible to ensure their children’s care in the face of conflicting societal and financial pressures and conditions. The unequal burden of care on women — across generations — shows how significantly gendered the taking on of risk and sacrifice is when both household livelihoods and the vitality of care relationships are precarious. This collection of case studies leaves subtle spaces of connection between various discussions, such as evidenced in the moves between contested care roles when a teenager becomes a mother, discourses of risk surrounding certain “undesirable” pregnancies, and the idyllic picture of familial support around a heteronormative, middle-class white couple. At the admission of the editors (194), the book only implicitly highlights the skewed gendering of care-work towards women. The omission of a pointed discussion about gender seems strange given the presence of Chapter 4, “How Men Care,” entirely dedicated to men’s orientations to care, interestingly foregrounding the reflexive significance of masculinity in their care relations. Nonetheless, the brevity of the case study method renders this collection of contributions as an entry point to further critical analysis at the intersections of care, families, health and gender. Within each section critical insights and renewed questions arise, making for a rich point of reference for further inquiry. Connected Lives brings together an important range of sociological presentations of the constitution of care and well-being in families and households in South Africa. I strongly recommend this book to academics, care-work professionals, individuals involved in advocacy work and policymakers; it also holds valuable insights for care-workers like social workers, early childhood development practitioners and custodians of elder-care homes.