Parenting Support as Policy Field: An Analytic Framework
This article develops an analytic framework for parenting support, treating it as both a form of social policy and a measure that intervenes more broadly in politics and society. It is suggested that, as a form of social policy, parenting support can be examined through analytical categories that are classic to social policy, such as: the nature of the offer or ‘good’ to parents, the modality of provision, conditions of access and operation, the policy setting and linkages to other policies, the unfolding of the policy over time and historical roots, philosophical underpinnings and dominant professional influences. In a second layer, the social and political roots and orientations of parenting support have to be investigated. When one does this by, for example, identifying the main actors involved in parenting support and the rationales and claims made for parenting support as a policy response, it becomes obvious that parenting support can be either a benign project of support or part of a more controlling educative or retraining exercise.
Investing in Children, Monitoring Parents: Parenting Support in the Changing German Welfare State
The long tradition of parent education and support in German social welfare provision has recently acquired a new importance. As in the recent expansion of public early childhood education and care, the current emphasis on supporting parents highlights altered definitions of childhood, shifting boundaries between ‘public’ and ‘private’ in parent‒child relations, and new local welfare mixes in service delivery. The article uses a literature review and qualitative interviews with experts, decision makers and service providers: first, to explicate older policy ideas in the new turn to parenting and the strong role being given to model projects for policy reform in the German institutional setting; second, to present recurrent themes in the interviews with professionals working on the ground, such as the new role of childcare centres in accessing parents, ongoing problems of coordination and cooperation in parenting support and issues of evidence and evaluation.
Ageing and generational conflicts: a reply to Sarah Irwin.
In response to Sarah Irwin, the article develops a conflict model of inter-generational exchanges and treats generation as a neglected dimension of social stratification theory and research. Against Irwin's focus on individual attitudes from survey data towards intra-familial co-operation between generations, the article draws on public policy on dependency, legislation on retirement, superannuation and pensions, and stereotypes of the elderly to study inter-generational inequalities. Employing Pierre Bourdieu's distinction between cultural and economic capital, it considers the formation of generations around political events, shared culture and strategic advantage. Generational conflict is structurally organized around the tensions between early retirement, age-related competency, legislation on ageism, and youth unemployment. Given rapid and radical changes to the labour market, generational cohesion is an important dimension therefore of strategies of social closure.