Understanding what ‘family’ means – and how best to support families – depends on challenging politicized assumptions that frame ‘ordinary’ families in comparison to an imagined problematic ‘other’.

Learning from the perspectives of people who were in care in childhood, this innovative book helps redefine the concept of family. Linking two longitudinal studies involving young adults in England, it reveals important new insights into the diverse and dynamic complexity of family lives, identities and practices in time – through childhood and beyond.

Paving the way for future policy and practice, this book makes an important contribution to the theorization of family in the 21st century.

Les mer
Drawing from longitudinal research, this book shows how the perspectives of people who have been in care can help us redefine the concept of family. Through a narrative analysis of the complexity of family lives, the author challenges the idea that some families are 'ordinary', while others are troubled, problematic and 'other'.
Les mer

1, Why Think Through ‘Family’?

2. Learning From Care Experienced Perspectives

3. Doing Family: The Significance of the ‘Ordinary'

4. Re/Configuring Boundaries: Who Counts as ‘Family’?

5. ‘How Can we Not Talk About Family When Family’s All That We’ve Got?’: Care and Connectedness

6. Understandings and Experiences of Parenthood

7. Thinking Through Family: Implications for Theory and Practice

Les mer
<p>Provides a much-needed theoretical resource for rethinking ‘family’ in policy and practice;</p><p> Based on rich longitudinal research;</p><p> Written by a respected name in the field.</p>

Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9781529214727
Publisert
2025-03-18
Utgiver
Vendor
Bristol University Press
Høyde
234 mm
Bredde
156 mm
Aldersnivå
P, G, 06, 01
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Heftet

Forfatter
Other adaptation by

Biographical note

Janet Boddy is Professor of Child, Youth and Family Studies at the University of Sussex and Adjunct Professor in the Childhood, Family and Welfare Division of NOVA at Oslo Metropolitan University.

Fidelma Hanrahan is Senior Research Officer at Research in Practice.

Bella Wheeler is Researcher in the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences at the University of Oxford.