Synopses & Reviews
As the everyday lives of children and young people are increasingly understood as matters of public policy and concern, the question of how we can understand the difference between and#147;normaland#8221; family troubles and troubled or troubling families has become more important. In this timely and thought-provoking book, a wide range of contributors address topics such as infant care, sibling conflict, divorce, disability, illness, substance abuse, violence, kinship care, and forced marriage, in an effort to explore how the concept of trouble features in normal families and how the concept of normal features in troubled families.
Review
andldquo;This brilliant book provides a wealth of insights that make it essential reading for academics and students across the social sciences, and for policy makers and practitioners.andrdquo;and#160;
Review
andldquo;A wealth of insightful essays, the book is filled with careful reflection of the process of change . . . in the everyday lives of children and young people.andrdquo;
Synopsis
In this important, timely and thought-provoking publication, a wide range of contributors explore how troubles feature in oenormal families, and how the oenormal features in oetroubled families.
Synopsis
As the everyday family lives of children and young people come to be increasingly defined as matters of public policy and concern, it is important to raise the question of how we can understand the contested terrain between "normal" family troubles and troubled and troubling families. In this important, timely and thought-provoking publication, a wide range of contributors explore how "troubles" feature in "normal" families, and how the "normal" features in "troubled" families. Drawing on research on a wide range of substantive topics - including infant care, sibling conflict, divorce, disability, illness, migration and asylum-seeking, substance misuse, violence, kinship care, and forced marriage - the contributors aim to promote dialogue between researchers addressing mainstream family change and diversity in everyday lives, and those specialising in specific problems which prompt professional interventions. In tackling these contentious and difficult issues across a variety of topics, the book addresses a wide audience, including policy makers, service users and practitioners, as well as family studies scholars more generally who are interested in issues of family change.
Synopsis
A familiar, yet contentious topic, the subject of family can present difficulties in the classroom, on levels ranging from personal to political and social. Understanding Family Meanings attacks this dilemma head-on, focusing on family meanings in diverse contexts to enhance our understanding of everyday social lives. Ranging over such issues as power, inequality, and values, this instructive text serves as an ideal introduction to family studies as it explores the shifting and subtle ways individuals, researchers, policymakers, and professionals make sense of the idea of family.
About the Author
Jane Ribbens McCarthy is reader in family studies at the Centre for Citizenship, Identities, and Governance at the Open University. Val Gillies is research professor in social and policy studies at the Weeks Center for Social and Policy Research at South Bank University. Carol-Ann Hooper is senior lecturer in social policy at the University of York.
Table of Contents
Notes on contributors
Foreword
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Dorit Braun
Preface
1. Troubling normalities and normal family troubles: diversities, experiences and tensions
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Jane Ribbens McCarthy, Carol-Ann Hooper and Val Gillies
Part One: Approaching Family Troubles? Contexts and Methodologies
Introduction to Part One
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Janet Ribbens McCarthy
2. Cultural context, families and troubles
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Jill Korbin
3. Representing family troubles through the 20th century
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Janet Fink
4. The role of science in understanding family troubles
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Michael Rutter
5. Family troubles, methods trouble: qualitative research and the methodological divide
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Ara Francis
Part Two: Whose Trouble? Contested Definitions and Practices
Introduction to Part Two
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Val Gillies
6. Disabled parents and normative family life: the obscuring of lived experiences of parents and children within policy and research accounts
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Harriet Clarke and Linsday O'Dell
7. Normal problems or problem children? Parents and the micro-politics of deviance and disability
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Ara Francis
8. Troubled talk and talk about troubles: moral cultures of infant feeding in professional, policy and parenting discourses
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Helen Lomax
9. Children's non-conforming behaviour: personal trouble or public issue?
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Geraldine Brady
10. Revealing the lived reality of kinship care through children and young people's narratives: "It's not all nice, it's not all easy-going, it's a difficult journey to go on"
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Karin Cooper
Part Three: The Normal, the Troubling and the Harmful?
Introduction to Part Three
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Carol-Ann Hooper
11. Troubling loss? Children's experiences of major disruptions in family life
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Lynn Jamieson and Gill Highet
12. The permeating presence of past domestic and familial violence: "So like I'd never let anyone hit me but I've hit them, and I shouldn't have done"
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Dawn Mannay
13. Thinking about sociological work on personal and family life in the light of research on young people's experience of parental substance misuse
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Sarah Wilson
14. The trouble with siblings: some psychosocial thoughts about sisters, aggression and femininity
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Helen Lucey
15. Children and family transitions: contact and togetherness
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Hayley Davies
Part Four: Troubles and Transitions across Space and Culture
Introduction to Part Four
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Jane Ribbens McCarthy
16. 'Troubling' or 'ordinary'? Children's views on migration and intergenerational ethnic identities
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Umut Erel
17. Colombian families dealing with parents' international migration
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Maria Claudia Duque-Pand#225;ramo
18. Families left behind: unaccompanied young people seeking asylum in the UK
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Elaine Chase and June Statham
19. Young peopleand#8217;s caring relations and transitions within families affected by HIV
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Ruth Evans
20. Estimating the prevalence of forced marriage in England
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Peter Keogh, Anne Kazimirski, Susan Purdon and Ruth Maisey
Part Five: Working with Families
Introduction to Part Five
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Carol-Ann Hooper
21. European perspectives on parenting and family support
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Janet Boddy
22. What supports resilient coping among family members? A systemic practitionerand#8217;s perspective
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Arlene Vetere
23. Troubled and troublesome teens: mothersand#8217; and professionalsand#8217; understandings of parenting teenagers and teenage troubles
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Harriet Churchill and Karen Clarke
24. Contested family practices and moral reasoning: updating concepts for working with family-related social problems
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Hannele Forsberg
25. Working with fathers: risk or resource?
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Brid Featherstone
26. What is at stake in family troubles? Existential issues and value frameworks
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Jane Ribbens McCarthy
Index