Individualization and contemporary fatherhood
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.20377/jfr-823Keywords:
individualization, fatherhood, social psychology, discourse analysis, multi-locality of families after separation, post-separation families, residential distance, face-to-face contacts, father-child-relationship, conduct of everyday life across households, Germany, AID:AAbstract
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.
References
Bech-Jørgensen, B. (1994). Når hver dag bliver hverdag [When every day turns into everyday life]. Akademisk Forlag.
Beck-Gernsheim, E. (2002). Reinventing the family: In search of new lifestyles. Polity Press & Blackwell Publishers.
Beck, U. (1992). Risk society: Towards a new modernity. SAGE.
Beck, U. (1994). The reinvention of politics: Towards a theory of reflexive modernization. In U. Beck, A. Giddens, & S. Lash (Eds.), Reflexive modernization: Politics, tradition and aesthetics in the modern social order (pp. 1–55). Polity Press.
Beck, U. & Beck-Gernsheim, E. (2002). Individualization. SAGE.
Budgeon, S. & Roseneil, S. (2004). Editors’ introduction: Beyond the conventional family. Current Sociology, 52(2): 127-134. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0011392104041797
Chambers, D. & Gracia, P. (2021). A Sociology of family life: Change and diversity in intimate relations. Wiley.
Dencik, L. (2005). Mennesket i postmoderniseringen: om barndom, familie og identiteter i opbrud [Human beings and postmodernization: On childhood, family and identities under change]. Billesø.
Dencik, L., Schultz Jørgensen, P., & Sommer, D. (2008). Familie og børn i en opbrudstid [Family and children in a time of upheaval]. Hans Reitzel.
Dermott, E. (2008). Intimate fatherhood: A sociological analysis. Routledge. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/9781405165518.wbeosf028
Dermott, E. & Miller, T. (2015). More than the sum of its parts? Contemporary fatherhood policy, practice and discourse. Families, Relationships and Societies, 4(2): 183–195. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1332/204674315X14212269138324
Edley, N. (2001). Analysing masculinity: Interpretative repertoires, ideological dilemmas and subject positions. In M. Wetherell, S. Taylor, & S. J. Yates, (Eds.), Discourse as data: A guide for analysis (pp.189–228). SAGE.
Farstad, G. R. & Stefansen, K. (2015). Involved fatherhood in the Nordic context: Dominant narratives, divergent approaches. NORMA: International Journal for Masculinity Studies, 10(1): 55–70. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/18902138.2015.1013348
Gouveia, R. & Castrén, A. M. (2021). Redefining the boundaries of family and personal relationships. In A. M. Castrén, V. Česnuitytė, I. Crespi, J. A. Gauthier, R. Gouveia, C. Martin,... & K. Suwada (Eds.), The Palgrave handbook of family sociology in Europe (pp. 259–277) Palgrave Macmillan. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-73306-3_13
Haavind, H. (1987). Liten og stor: Mødres omsorg og barns utviklingsmuligheter. [Big and small: Mothers’ care and children’s developmental possibilities] Universitetsforlaget.
Habermas, J. (1984). The theory of communicative action. Polity Press.
Henriksson, H.W. (2019). Exploring fatherhood in critical gender research. In L. Gottzén, U. Mellström, & T. Shefer (Eds.), Routledge international handbook of masculinity studies (pp. 320–330). Routledge. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315165165-32
Ives, J. (2015). Theorising the ‘deliberative father’: Compromise, progress and striving to do fatherhood well. Families, Relationships and Societies, 4(2): 281-294. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1332/204674314X14184029517584
Jamieson, L. (2011). Intimacy as a concept: Explaining social change in the context of globalisation or another form of ethnocentricism? Sociological Research Online, 16(4): 151–163. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5153/sro.2497
Johansson, T. (2011) Fatherhood in transition: Paternity leave and changing masculinities, Journal of Family Communication, 11(3): 165–180. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/15267431.2011.561137
Kousholt, D. & Juhl, P. (2021). Addressing ethical dilemmas in research with young children and families. Situated ethics in collaborative research. Human Arenas: 1-20. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42087-021-00236-9
Levin, I. & Trost, J. (1999). Living apart together. Community, work & family, 2(3): 279-294. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13668809908412186
Marsden, P. V. (1990). Network data and measurement. Annual Review of Sociology, 16: 435-463. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.so.16.080190.002251
McCarthy, J. R. (2012). The powerful relational language of ‘family’: togetherness, belonging and personhood. The Sociological Review, 60(1): 68-90. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-954X.2011.02045.x
Mead, G. H. (1934). Mind, self and society. University of Chicago Press.
Miller, T. (2010). Making sense of fatherhood: gender, caring and work. Cambridge University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511778186
Miller, T. (2017). Making sense of parenthood: Caring, gender and family lives. Cambridge University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316219270
Mills, C. W. (1959). The sociological imagination. Oxford University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/1891592
Morgan, D. (2011). Rethinking Family Practices. Palgrave Macmillan UK. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230304680
Nielsen, S. B. & Westerling, A. (2014). Fathering as a learning process: Breaking new ground in familiar territory. In T. Rostgaard & G. B. Eydal (Eds.) Fatherhood in the Nordic welfare states (pp. 187-208). Policy Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.46692/9781447310495.009
Oechsle, M., Müller, U. & Hess, S. (Eds.). (2012). Fatherhood in late modernity: Cultural images, social practices, structural frames. Verlag Barbara Budrich. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvddzvgg
Roseneil, S. & Budgeon, S. (2004). Cultures of intimacy and care beyond “the family”: Personal life and social change in the early 21st century. Current Sociology, 52(2): 135–159. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0011392104041798
Sparrman, A., Westerling, A., Lind, J. & Dannesboe, K.I. (Eds.). (2016). Doing good parenthood: Ideals and practices of parental involvement. Springer. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-46774-0
Spradley, J. P. (1979). The ethnographic interview. Wadsworth Group – Thomson Learning.
Westerling, A. (2008). Individualisering, familieliv og fællesskab: En socialpsykologisk analyse af hverdagslivets sociale netværk i en refleksiv modernitet. [Individualization, family life and togetherness: A social psychological study of social networks of everyday life in a reflexive modernity] PhD Dissertation Roskilde University.
Westerling, A. (2015). Reflexive fatherhood in everyday life: The case of Denmark, Families, Relationships and Societies, 4(2): 209-223. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1332/204674315X14347065836218
Westerling, A. (2018). Mixing methods in fatherhood research: Studying social change in family life. In E. Dermott & C. Gatrell (Eds). Fathers, families and relationships: Researching everyday lives (pp. 189-210). Policy Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.46692/9781447331483.011
Wetherell, M. & Edley, N. (2014). A discursive psychological framework for analyzing men and masculinities. Psychology of Men & Masculinity, 15(4): 355-364. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/a0037148
Williams, S. (2008). What is fatherhood? Searching for the reflexive father. Sociology, 42(3): 487-502. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038508088837
