Individualization and contemporary fatherhood

Objective: This article explores dilemmas related to contemporary fatherhood and discusses how theories of individualization enable the understanding of social change and family life. Background: Theories on modernization argue that ongoing processes of individualization challenge researchers to reinvent key concepts in family sociology. The concept of intimate fatherhood allows for the exploration of men’s family practices and presents a basis for understanding what modernization means for contemporary parenthood. Intimate fatherhood can be further theorized through empirically sensitive approaches in the study of everyday family life. Method: Drawing on data from a mixed-method longitudinal study comprising four waves of data from the 1968 cohort in Denmark (n = 1,414), the study analyzes qualitative interviews from the second and fourth waves. Social psychological discourse analysis of the interviews is used to explore the participants' family practices. Results: The analysis examines how caring intimacy in contemporary fatherhood is interwoven in a complex entanglement with other positions related to partnering and provision. Individualization is theorized as a mode of orientation in life with reference to oneself but not counterposed to social ties and family practices signified by solidarity and togetherness. Conclusion: Individualization theory can guide analytical attention when examining contemporary fatherhood, but such analyses must remain sensitive to the complex entanglement of everyday family life

“She’s my child, but it’s their place”:Boundary work in everyday life

I denne artikel viser vi, hvordan det daglige samarbejde mellem pædagogisk personale og forældre præges af stigende institutionalisering af forældreansvar, og af at arbejdsdelingen mellem daginstitution og familie ændrer sig. Artiklens analyser bygger på empirisk materiale fra to forskningsprojekter i danske daginstitutioner. Projekterne har haft henholdsvis pædagogers og forældres perspektiver på samarbejdet om børns tidlige læring i fokus. I denne artikel sætter vi primært fokus på forældrenes perspektiver og inddrager kun i mindre omfang pædagogernes perspektiver. Teoretisk tager vi afsæt i en forståelse af familien som social praksis forbundet til andre praksisser og i forlængelse heraf en forståelse af forældreskab som et fænomen, der udspiller sig i og formes i mødet med omsorgsgivere andre steder – fx i daginstitutionen. Analytisk bruger vi begrebet grænsesøgning til at sætte fokus på, hvad forældre og pædagoger hver især gør for at håndtere samarbejdet mellem familie og daginstitution i hverdagens møder, og hvordan arbejds- og ansvarsfordeling forhandlesIn this article, we show how the daily collaboration between pedagogues and parents is characterised by increasing institutionalisation of parental responsibility, and that the boundaries between day care institution and family have changed. The analyses in this article are based on empirical data derived from two research projects in Danish day care institutions. Theoretically, we take as our starting point an understanding of the family as social practice connected to other practices, and in an understanding of parenthood as a phenomenon that is shaped and developed in the daily encounters with caregivers elsewhere – e.g., in the day care institution. Analytically, we use the concept of boundary work to focus on what parents and pedagogues do to deal with collaboration between family and day care in everyday encounters, and how the division of labour and responsibilities is negotiated